NYP Holdings Inc.

Room 9 bulletin:

Popular City Hall reporter Stephanie Gaskell is quitting her job with the New York Post to go cover the war in Iraq as a freelancer, she told me.

Gaskell, who covered Guantanamo Bay for the AP around 2002, is leaving on Friday night -- missing the Inner Circle show! -- and should be in Baghdad by Monday.

She'll be embedded with the military for two or three months.

We all wish her extremely well.

-- Azi Paybarah

Education historian/activist Diane Ravitch is taking the New York Post, claiming the paper doesn't appreciate parents criticism of public schools. Which sort of mirrors parent's complaints about Joel Klein.

In an item she posted at 6 a.m., Ravitch wrote:

Did the editorial writers of the New York Post read the latest Qunnipiac poll? Do they know that 58% of the voters in New York City want an end to mayoral control and a return to an independent Board of Education?

[skip]

Since the New York Post did not bother to report the poll to their readers, perhaps they don't know about it. And that's why their editorial writers think that anyone who questions the latest reorganization of the reorganization is a shill from New Jersey, not a real public school parent.

-- Azi Paybarah

Mike Sitrick, a spokesperson for Ron Burkle, just released a statement regarding the news that Jared Paul Stern will not be charged.

"The facts speak very clearly for themselves, as media reports on the contents of the tapes have demonstrated.

"Mr. Burkle followed the government's instructions from the onset: From their directive that he record and they monitor the second meeting Mr. Stern had with him -- where Mr. Stern repeated his request that Mr. Burkle pay him $100,000 up front and thereafter $10,000 monthly in exchange for Mr. Stern's 'efforts' to stop the publication of false reports about Mr. Burkle on Page Six of the New York Post -- to the government's subsequent monitoring of a series of emails with Mr. Stern in which Mr. Burkle was given bank account information for wiring money to Mr. Stern -- to now. Mr. Burkle didn't question their decisions previously and he isn't going to start doing so now."

Jared Paul Stern has been notified that he will not be charged with a crime by the U.S. Attorney's office.

Since last April, Mr. Stern, a former Page Six writer, has waited on word from any law enforcement office regarding allegations of extortion or blackmail due to his interactions with supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle.

Joe Tacopina, Mr. Stern's lawyer, issued a statement to The Observer today:

"I have been informed by the U.S. Attorney's office that they are not proceeding with any case against Mr. Stern. We have said from day one that this was a campaign to spread lies based on false accusations fueled by Burkle's personal vendetta against the New York Post, and that there was never any evidence of wrongdoing on Mr. Stern's part."

More in tomorrow's New York Observer.

--Choire Sicha

The oft-criticized legislators up in Albany must be enjoying the spectacle of the press training its fire on... the press.

The Times Union reported yesterday that the New York Bankers Association, a group that lobbies state lawmakers, paid the New York Post's veteran Albany man Fred Dicker for a speech earlier this month.

A spokesperson for the NYBA said that Dicker's speech on January 9 lasted about 30 minutes, and a spokesman for the Post said Dicker was paid $1,000. (The money has since been returned to the association with a request that it be donated to an Alzheimer's-related charity, according to Post spokesman Steven Rubenstein.)

Today, the Daily News gets in on the story, adding that "this is the third straight year the NYBA has been paying Dicker - without the knowledge of his boss, Post editor in chief Col Allan."

I'm guessing this isn't over.

-- Azi Paybarah

Barack Obama is getting ready to run, and said that the race "could be fun."

The New York Post handicaps the 2008 race, with Hillary Clinton at 3:1, Obama at 5:1 and Chris Dodd at "He jumped in last week. Did anyone notice?"

Mike Lupica of the Daily News writes, "Clinton would rather be photographed with soldiers than do anything for them."

The New Republic profiles John Edwards, the "accidental populist." [subscription]

"We have eliminated member items as they have been known to exist over the past number of years," said Eliot Spitzer.

Mike Bloomberg plans to cut real estate taxes, which is a departure from how he used a surplus last year to pay down future health care costs.

State pension funds were invested in a company connected to Joe Bruno.

Republican state Senate candidate Maureen O'Connell has union support.

The Times editors say the new comptroller should have "fearless independence," and financial expertise.

Congressional restrictions on lobbying doesn't include spouses of lawmakers.

The head of the police union stopped a break-in at his own house.

And Lower Manhattan residents have until March 30 to get free testing and clean-up of WTC dust from the EPA.

-- Azi Paybarah

Hevesi recriminations continue. Albany DA's office denies leaking sensitive memo: "The last place in the world we would call was the New York Post."

One Jersey mayor has an interesting strategy for closing his revenue gap.

John McCain's 18-year-old son has enlisted in the Marine Corps. We should be hearing more about him.

Welcome to the day after Christmas, the only day of the year you're likely to read a feature about Dennis Kucinich and Duncan Hunter's presidential campaigns.

This story is what people were worried about when it came to John Murtha.

James Brown is dead.

Saddam Hussein may follow him soon.

C'mon folks--there must be more than this going on today! Please keep me posted.

City Comptroller Bill Thompson reintroduced a shareholder resolution today calling on Wal-Mart to disclose its policy for using corporate money for political contributions.

"Corporate executives should not feel free to use their company assets to advance any political objectives that are not shared by shareholders and the entire company. We are urging these companies to support this important critical governance reform," Thompson said in a release.

Clearly, the wrath of the New York Post hasn't shaken him.

-- Azi Paybarah

The refusal by Time Warner boss Dick Parsons to rule out a mayoral run this week turned out to have been a brilliant piece of public relations, leading to a spate of respectful media speculation and, today, to this enthusiastic editorial in the New York Post.

"Over the last five years, one media magnate-turned-politician - Michael Bloomberg - has demonstrated that a businessman can do a pretty good job running the city.

"And Parsons would, arguably, be even more qualified to be mayor than Bloomberg was in 2001."

It ends with the standard catch phrase for all political draft movements: "Run, Dick, Run."

But is any of it real?

This morning, in reponse to an interview request to Parson's office, here's what Time Warner corporate communications director Keith Cocozza told me:

"He's not running for mayor."

-- Azi Paybarah

Oct. 13, 20063:54 p.m.

5 pounds, 6 ounces  read more »

Roosevelt Hospital

The rumor that Eliot Spitzer has approached Freddy Ferrer about an appointment as Secretary of State has been making the rounds for weeks now. We first heard about it on Oct 25th, and when I asked Ferrer in an email, he wrote back that day with a clear cut "no."

On the 29th, the New York Post ran a story suggesting otherwise. Ferrer wrote me to deny the story.

"With respect to today's story, the answer is still 'no,'" he wrote. "No one from the Post ever called or contacted me about this."

Today New York Magazine has David Paterson saying "it's still live" and adds some interesting backstory as to why the appointment is a plausible one.

This time, so far, Ferrer isn't responding to a request for comment.

--Jason Horowitz

Jossip editor Corynne Steindler is leaving the celebrity and media site behind, to become a full-time reporter at the New York Post's Page Six. She will begin in early October.

Steindler said: "Jossip's been an amazing experience, but the opportunity to report for Page Six is something I just couldn't pass up."

Others were less reluctant to pass up a similar opportunity earlier this year. When Page Six editor Richard Johnson set out to replace his freelancers with a full-timer after the Jared Paul Stern scandal, more than a half-dozen prospective candidates declined to pursue the opportunity. Eventually Johnson hired Bill Hoffman from within the Post, to join Paula Froelich and Chris Wilson on the gossip staff.

In August, Wilson accepted a position at Maxim, leaving a new vacancy among the Sixers. This week, Steindler met with Johnson and editor-in-chief Col Allen and was offered the position.

So how will Steindler--who started blogging at Jossip in December 2005-- adjust from riffing on the morning's news to reporting into the wee hours for the Post? "I don't want it to be looked at as a huge leap to what I'm doing now," Steindler said. "It's just more high profile, and more corporate. But other than that, I'll be doing the same work--just for Richard."

-Michael Calderone

Today's Page Six says that "Rudy Giuliani has made enemies among a group that should be solidly behind "America's mayor"—the Society of Former Special Agents—after canceling as their keynote speaker."

Howard Rubenstein, who represents the New York Post, also represents the Former Special Agents of the FBI. (He also works with the New York F.B.I. office— Mr. Rubenstein has also been identified in the press as a "Kushner family spokesman." Jared Kushner is the owner of the New York Observer.)

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

Since The Daily Show with Jon Stewart doesn't quite spoof New York politics often enough, Room 8 launched a daily video segment called Lunch Box, featuring some guy named Adam Green.

Green sounds like an equal offender and gets the tone of most of the conversations I imagine are taking place in a lot of other newsrooms.

First, Green (no relation to Mark) compared Andrew Cuomo's endorsement by Charlie King and the New York Post to his own endorsement of a chocolate doughnut. "It stood up to whitey the other day in the projects. It got moxie."

Then, when discussing Jonathan Tasin's latest video ads, Green says:

"We're sorry you don't have the coffers to run a regular promo on the radio, but this little bit of craziness is one crotch-kick away from being the all-time state university frat drinking game."

The premiere episode is here.

-- Azi Paybarah

• NYU says Borough Park is the most crowded neighborhood in New York, on account of big Orthodox families squeezing into small houses. Meanwhile, prices are so high in Williamsburg that hundreds of local Hassidim are fleeing for the greener pastures of upstate Scranton (an area known eerily as The Hill). And, sadly: brokers do not like "tough customer" observant Jews. (New York Post)
• Paul Goldberger disses architect Daniel Libeskind's plans for Ground Zero: "he cloaked his familiar angular shapes in patriotic rhetoric," the critic writes, before pointing out that anyway the plan "has been compromised almost out of existence." And then, for shame, he calls New York "supposedly sophisticated." (New Yorker)
• Macy's goes high-tech, building a 35,000-square-foot J&R Express store within its Herald Square flagship. The Alliance for Downtown New York has sighted the expansion at the big J&R Music & Computer World (on Park Row north of Fulton) as evidence of Lower Manhattan's rebirth. Does that mean Herald Square is hot now too? (NY Post)
• Andrew Rasiej aims to hook up New Yorkers with 25,000 free wireless routers, a campaign that took off last week with 25 gratis set-ups in the East Village. "This is a people-powered effort," he says--which means that free (or cheap) citywide Internet is a long, long way off. (Citi Limits)
• Pulitzer Prize-winning Novelist Richard Ford on realty and fiction: "I was writing a paragraph about what it feels like to live in a town where housing prices are falling. And, in the process of thinking about that, I just expanded my frame of reference to include the larger human condition... We calculate our spiritual condition, in part, in terms of how and where we live. I don't think it's peculiarly American to feel that way, and yet it is American." (New Yorker)
- Max Abelson  read more »
• 2 comments

No, seriously.

Following the New York Post editorial last week, the Times wrote this morning that Hillary should debate her anti-war challenger, Jonathan Tasini.

Hillary "has not been forced to discuss in great detail exactly what she thinks should be done now that things have gone so far awry in the Middle East." - NY Times Hillary's "stance on Iraq - always adaptable to changing circumstances - could stand a little clarification." - NY Post -- Azi Paybarah

The mid-90s: a good thing.

• How the mighty have fallen! Ex-executive, ex-con Martha Stewart may sell her $9 million Turkey Hill estate to a "Connecticut-based local TV host." This personality, Mr. Mar Jennings, will own the hallowed grounds on which Ms. Stewart's not-impenetrable empire was built. (New York Post)
• Is "buzz"-happy Red Hook still the same neighborhood? Maybe. According to the Times, "local real estate agents" agree that the majority of residents still live in projects--and the Red Hook Houses have nearly the lowest average income in New York. That stat comes from a NYT piece on the neighborhood's African American "old timers," in which real estate nicknames like "Poor Block, Junkie Paradise, Crazy Corner" are rattled off without a hint of condescension or discomfort. (New York Times)
• CNN loves the bubble, or at least it loves bubble stories. Thus we are all alerted this morning to the big news that real estate does not necessarily make a good short-term investment. The story's headline reads: "With the real estate bubble losing air, is this your big chance - or the single worst time to buy?" Everyone panic. (CNN/Money)
• Eloquent Metropolis gives a brief overview of the recent infiltration of public art, including Sarah Sze's Corner Plot in Central Park ("self-contained by its submerged plot"), Nancy Rubins' Big Pleasure Point at Lincoln Center ("Hurricane Katrina"), and Jeff Koons' Balloon Flower (Red) at 7 WTC ("of course... now trite."). (Metropolis)
• Questionable Expert Assertion of the Day: "Long Island City, along with Greenpoint, Brooklyn, contain the same potential as such Manhattan areas as Chelsea or the Lower East Side." (Globe St.)
- Max Abelson  read more »
• 1 comment

About that slightly surreal New York Post editorial in defense of Jonathan Tasini and his right to debate Hillary Clinton on NY1...

Before today, we noticed after some perfuntory Nexis-ing, the Post mentioned Tasini's candidacy exactly once -- an 80-word story about his interview with Room 8 in which he was outspokenly critical of Israel.

They did mention him three other times in 2001, when he led a lawsuit against the The Times on behalf of some aggrieved freelance writers.

As for why the editorial board wants to see Hillary debate this guy, your guess is probably as good as mine.  read more »

-- Azi Paybarah

It's not often a reform candidate comes to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's defense.

That's what freshman Assemblywoman Sylvia Friedman did last night when she not only defended Silver's position on a rape bill that later proved incredibly unpopular, but said she helped persuade him to take the controversial position in the first place.

"He was in favor of ending the statute of limitations on rape on the criminal side, but not on the civil side," Friedman said at a candidate's forum on the Lower East Side last night.

Both the State Senate and the governor blasted the change at the time, saying that it would open the door to endless lawsuits and become a giveaway to trial lawyers.

It proved so unpopular, even among some women's advocates, that many considered it Silver's way of killing the negotiations entirely. Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau reportedly cursed at the Assembly Speaker for insisting on it. And New York Post columnist Andrea Peyser write a column on the issue whose headline referred to Silver as a "rapist's best friend."

Not Silver's fault, said Friedman: "He was the one who changed his mind and voted with us."

I spoke with Friedman some more afterwards and here's what she had to say.  read more »

-- Azi Paybarah

That Spitzer blog reportedly run by New York Post editorial board member, Tom Elliot, is now defunct. Feel free to speculate on a conspiracy (Mercury Affairs blogger takes out fellow right-wing, pro-Spitzer blogger!) while I wait for Eliot to return my email.

Karol Sheinin of Alarming News is guest blogging for Michelle Malkin while she's on vacation. Karol, in true Malkin fashion, rips into Howard Dean for not being angry enough at Sadam Hussein.

Guest blogger Errol Lous wants to know what questions to ask the attorney general candidates before thier debate.

And a frustrated Democratic operative asks, "Are they replacing you at 51st state--i am getting sick of looking at cynthia mckinney already."

-- Azi Paybarah

• The duplex penthouse atop the new Astor Place Sculpture For Living has full views, 4,400 square feet, and every detail (down to the white marble bathroom) done by Charles Gwathmey Himself. So why has it still not sold? Maybe because it's $12 million, or because there's no on-site fitness center (like at the new One Kenmark Square, right). (New York Post)
• Ratner recap: The Bruce gets $60.8 million in cash, plus 3.9 million units of stock, from his pals at Forest City Enterprises. Sweet deal, right? Yet in return he hands over his 30% stake in Forest City Ratner to FCE, which means saying goodbye to 30 enormous properties--including Atlantic Yards and the new Renzo Piano Times HQ. Matthew Schuerman explains: it's all about philanthropy. (Crain's)
• Midtown is so hot right now. First came posh condos, then a "second" Times Square on 38th, and now a fancy salad joint on Park and 51st. It's all the (hormonal) rage with young investment bankers, who head there "for the dressings and the girls, basically." (New York)
• The New York Law School gets immeasurably cooler, dropping $190 million to double its Tribeca campus. Its new 200,000-square-foot building--nine stories, four beneath ground--will be open for very hip studying in 2008. (Crain's)
• The New York Times summarizes the Best Borough in a single artful sentiment: "The smell of death everywhere, so thick and strong it makes eyes water, and yet the curious will line up around the corner for a look. Ah, Brooklyn!" (New York Times)
- Max Abelson  read more »
• 0 comments

• It has been called One Beacon Court, 731 Lexington Avenue, 151 East 58th Street, and--for long-time New Yorkers--Alexander's. But now, The Times reports that the East Side skyscraper is commonly referred to as the Bloomberg Building, after its most famous renter. Seems like this idea has been explored before. (The New York Times)
• It's been fun--and we've learned all about sandhogs and the "indispensable backhoe operators," but now it's time to head back to work. When ex-strikers toil at city construction sites like Ground Zero, they'll be compensated for their work 20 percent more than they'd been before. Heavy machine operators of the world, unite! (NY1)
• The suburbs help drive a real estate boom in New Orleans, where "volume and sales prices" have somehow exceeded the pre-Katrina numbers. But back in the New York market--which is apparently built around international wealth and "well-designed kitchens"--there may not be enough buyers to fill the 24,400 potential new co-ops. (New York Times)
• Or maybe American home buying is "grinding to a halt"? A few statistics sometimes help when trying to decide questions like this, though the Post pays no mind. (New York Post)
• Essential read of the day: Crain's NY Market Facts special issue. (Crain's)
• Non-essential read: CNN declares there are "mixed messages" on Manhattan real-estate prices, which is almost as piercing as their last feature on how "it's never easy buying your first home." At least this story has a few wonderfully anxious quotes from the New York real estate elite: "I'm more concerned about 2007 than 2006," Corcoran C.E.O. Pam Liebman admits. (CNN/Money)
• Non-essential fact: Lord Norman Foster's new Hearst Tower has a 9,000-square-foot "exercise emporium," complete with something called "in-line skating machines" (unpleasantly dubbed, "The Wave"). (The Post)

- Max Abelson  read more »

• Brooklyn architects are competing furiously to erect Williamsburg's first eco-friendly five-story building. (Whoever wins, we're all victors when the buildings have names like Greenbuilt and The Solaire.) The reactionaries at The Post insist that "being green isn't quite that sexy," though condos like the 5,500-square-foot Devoe (at 233 Devoe St.) will be open within a year--complete with garden roofs and geothermal heating/cooling. Who would ever have believed that Brooklyn would be going green? (New York Post)
• Philanthropic (or genius PR) move of the morning: Phoenix Realty Group has created a $250 million fund for affordable housing ("and commercial projects") in mid-income neighborhoods. Better yet, that quarter million will magically sprout into a clean billion, thanks to development with "community-based" partners. The biggest of the fund's projects will reach $100 million--our fingers are crossed for twin philanthropic townhouses. (Crain's)
• The Times treads lightly on the city's precious real estate bubble, although the comfort-factor of an article about Manhattan real estate stability is always diminished when it begins, "Despite some signs of a weakening market..." Yet instead of paying mind to the frightening reports by Corcoran and its peers, the kind gray lady soothingly promises: "lofty real estate prices were little changed." (The New York Times)
• Or maybe the bubble is doing just fine? CNN reports that the average price of "existing family homes" in NYC (and Northern New Jersey) rose 11.2% last year (about 46 grand) to $458,500. This statistic is employed, of course, in a very helpful feature story on why buying a first home is difficult. (CNN/Money)
• Freedom Tower Teamsters/crane operators/sandhogs strike update: an agreement seems to have been reached on wage increases, though arguments continue about the number of workers at each construction site. When that's settled, all Ground Zero will need is a plan. (NY1)
• The Post describes The Sunshine Group's $12.1 million listing for the sixth floor of Richard Meier's West Village condo, and sadly cannot resist laying down a "people in glass houses..." joke in the story's opening line. Reactionaries. (New York Post)
- Max Abelson
• 0 comments

• The Post gets a scorchingly hot scoop on the Post's very own headquarters in Rockefeller Center West. Boston's Beacon Capital will pay $1.5 billion for the building at 1211 Sixth Ave., which will merely amount to "the second-largest single asset sale in the world." (New York Post)
• All we wanted for Independence Day was some good Freedom Tower news. Instead, construction workers refused to show up for work this week, on account of the labor dispute among heavy equipment operators--plus, of course, the Teamsters and a group of highly demanding underground workers nicknamed "sandhogs." (NY1)
• Finally, Manhattan's luxury real estate buyers are catching on to the wonderful trend of hotel-condos (the hot "real estate product.") Donald Trump says his new Spring Street hondo will be the tallest building in Soho, while Dallas' Lincoln Property has announced its own at 12-18 West 55th--next door to the St. Regis, which itself is offering 24 condos on two floors for $1.7-7.3 million. (The Real Deal)
• Meanwhile, regular builders are leaving behind condominiums--the long-time "darling of the development community," according to Crain's, at its most poetic--and beginning to "court" the rental market. Real estate can be so romantic. (Crain's premium)
• Or is the romance gone? Four unbearably beautiful Beaux-Arts town houses on West 56th may be demolished to make room for a 16-story apartment complex. The buildings haven't been designated as landmarks--even though, for example, 33 West 56th is the former speakeasy immortalized by "Night After Night" (in which Mae West makes her big screen debut by introducing herself to the doorman as "the fairy princess, ya mug.") (The New York Times)
- Max Abelson
• 0 comments

Scott McConnell, editor of The American Conservative (and the former editorial page editor of the New York Post who abandoned neoconservatism in part because of the neocon disdain for "people of color"), is recently returned from a trip to the Mideast sponsored by Churches for Middle East Peace, a group dedicated to getting mainstream Christians involved in these issues.

McConnell found Damascus just as pleasurable as I found it a few months back. He met President Assad and judged him to be "wonkish" and sincere, looking to some day reap the rewards of peace with Israel, trying to modernize his country in the face of Islamicism. Then at the U.S. Embassy, McConnell relates the following encounter, very layered:

We spent part of an afternoon at the American ambassador's residence, hearing our diplomats explain how they are keeping economic and political pressure on the Assad regime and about Syria's lack of progress towards real reform. Off the record, around a table of drinks and snacks, the tone softened. They all loved being stationed in Damascus and were delighted with their encounters with unofficial Syria. I told one diplomat that the evening before we had attended a concert at the city's largest Greek Orthodox church, hearing men's, women's, and children's choirs perform religious and folk songs. It was a large and formal event, a milestone in the Damascene Christian calendar. Watching the young choir boys fussing shyly with their uniforms or their mothers coddling younger brothers and sisters or gathering the kids together after the event, one could easily imagine this as a pre-Easter break convocation at Convent of the Sacred Heart in New York or any large parochial school in the Western world. I told the diplomat that there are many in the corridors of power in Bush's Washington who want nothing more than to smash the Syrian regime in the service of the "global democratic revolution" or whatever is the slogan of the moment at the American Enterprise Institute, and this smashing would have incalculably tragic consequences for the community whose celebration we had witnessed the night before. He nodded with a look of weary resignation.

• The Post finds the motherlode of real estate in Brooklyn's Prospect Lefferts Gardens. On the bright side, the neighborhood has no "available land for development." On the dark side, the golden $200,000-for-an-apartment price is fast on its way up. (New York Post)
• Hypocritically massive mansion of the day: Bill O'Reilly's gated Manhasset dreamland. He is, indeed, a man of the people. (Cryptome, via Gawker)
• Utility fees, insurance premiums and big bad taxes are forcing a hike in co-op maintenance fees. Another "killer" is heating cost, which means we should all follow the green example set yesterday by the Clinton Hill Apartments. (New York Post)
• Americans will spend an inappropriate $79 billion on their kitchens this year. But only the big spenders of "Manhattan's toniest ZIP codes" will get their very own Remains of the Day and/or Something's Gotta Give food space. (The New York Times)
• Why stop there? New Yorkers are plunking down $80,000 to get their fancy hands on Ron Arad aluminum rocking chairs. The nursery, of course, is also an It Room. (New York Post)
• The cost of New York City living is sprouting "unusually fast," raising our inflation to a 15-year record. Housing, which accounts for half--half!--of our cost of living, rose 5.6% since last year. Thank God for expensive kitchens and cradles. (The New York Times)
- Max Abelson
• 0 comments

• The Times' Nicolai Ouroussoff pens a 1150-word love letter to Norman Foster's steely new Hearst Tower. The "muscular symbol" is viewed as "slamming through the malaise like a hammer," and of course it is "another sign that the city's energy is reviving." (And that's just the first 400 words). (New York Times)
• The Pratt Center for Community Development accuses the Pataki administration of cutting housing funding, and steering bond money to Republican campaign donors. So instead of affordable housing, New York has apparently been giving money to sleazy luxury developers. We say it's trickle down real estate! (AP, via New York Post)
• The New York Comptroller's big new study reveals that Queens property values have risen more than in any other borough (besides, of course, Manhattan). "The bad news is that housing is less affordable"--and that "the borough had the slowest rate of job growth" in the city, and that "Queens residents had the longest work commute in the country." (Crain's)
• Elad Properties, whose karma is already suffering because of its Plaza hotel/condo project, is turning a 19th-century Chelsea department store into luxury condominiums. Now debris from the Chelsea construction has damaged one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in New York, the final home of American Revolution Jewish soldiers. Does this mean Elad is permanently cursed? (The New York Times)
• Get your weekend home, August family vacationing and caviar all in one place: scenic Brighton Beach! It's just a "breezy half-hour drive," though Curbed mocks Brighton's "Brezhnev Era chic by the sea." (New York Daily News) (Curbed)
- Max Abelson
• 0 comments

• Frank Gehry, the popstar behind Tiffany jewelry and Bruce Ratner skyscrapers, gets his $4.6 million contract for the WTC arts center extended for yet another year. Sadly Mr. Gehry will face the annoyance of dealing with the Port Authority, whose executive director promises: "If there's an obstacle, that's not the obstacle." (AP, via New York Daily News)
• Heiress Anna Anisimova pays a slick $600,000 for her Hamptons summer rental, smashing her record-breaking $550,000 tab from 2004. (Congratulations, Anna.) Lucky for us all it's an "open house" - you can already find 50 guests at the tiki bar, the sunken tennis court, or at one of 8 plasma TVs. (New York Post)
• A house in Red Hook may (or may not) have sold for a million. Curbed blames Fairway, we blame Time Out. (Curbed)
• Guess who insists that Manhattan real estate is looking perfectly rosy? The Real Estate Board of New York, of course. Despite the Board's comforting new numbers -- like the 22% jump (to $838,000) for the median condo sale -- some cold-hearted analysts insist the market is "flat." (Crain's)
• Stock traders are the luckiest: The state's Job Creation and Retention Program forks nearly a million dollars over to Wall Street's LaBranche & Co., so that they'll stay put at 33 Whitehall Street. If only poor Anna could get the same deal in the Hamptons. (The New York Times)
• A very big, very old, and very valuable hole in the ground (fortunately situated at 42nd and Eighth) may be changing hands. The hole's owner, Howard Milstein, has apparently been "looking forward to coming out of the ground." Meanwhile his retail leasing agent Robert Futterman wonders: "what's in Howard's mind when he wakes up in the morning?" (New York Post)
- Max Abelson  read more »
• 0 comments

• Last year, one in ten "affluent Americans" expected a drop in their real estate's value. This year, it is one in three. (In other news, lots of rich people leave their money to pets). (New York Post)
• Three BLTs are never enough. Chef Laurent Tourondel and moneyman Jimmy Haber will set up a brand new BLT restaurant at the ritzy Ritz-Carlton Central Park. Goodbye, Atelier - hello, sidewalk cafe. (Crain's)
• Frank Bruni ventures to Williamsburg in search of sophistication without cleverness, beauty without flamboyancy. He finds a restaurant unstained by youthful hipster musk, and he rejoices. "Williamsburg," Mr. Bruni concludes, "has grown up." (The New York Times)
• Maybe that $1,000-per-month-for-anyone story wasn't quite realistic: Manhattan's apartment vacancy rate dipped to 0.43% in May. (First prize goes to Murray Hill, leading the way at 0.21%). The bad news is that the average three bedroom apartment costs $4,150 per month - the good news is that there are hardly any available. (New York Daily News)
- Max Abelson
• 0 comments

• Peter Munk doesn't just have a great Canadian surname, he also happens to be a billionaire. (Apparently gold mining pays off). He'll make some more dough when his Trizec Properties is sold to Brookfield for $8.9 billion. People get ready: the deal might make Brookfield the city's largest commercial property owner. (New York Post)
• The Orwellian Economic Development Corp. awarded Baldor Specialty Food a nice 15-acre plot in Hunts Point. But the folks across the street, who happen to run a cooperative of 50 family-owned wholesale produce businesses, took the city to court. And they beat Big Brother. (Crain's)
• This weekend The Times promised us all we could rent a nice place for a grand per month. But litigious old women are never satisfied: Ms. Lisa Dittmer is aiming below $100 for her Bay Ridge pad. (The New York Times)
• Not all 14-year-olds have such a keen eye for real estate: New York's ritziest red-tailed hawks (Pale Male and Lola) have left the 12th floor on Fifth Avenue for a 24th-floor tower on Central Park West. (New York Daily News)
- Max Abelson
• 0 comments

• Everything that matters in Brooklyn, by New York elitists. (New York)
• AsylumNYC is an exhibit-cum-contest at White Box Gallery between foreign born artists competing for permanent residency. (The New York Times)
• Twenty-seven billion gallons of your crap goes into our waters. Who's ready for summer? (New York)
• It's hard to run a city, like, to predict how many hospital beds and jail cells it'll need. (Gotham Gazette)
• Club owners get the shake down from the cops, but they're just trying to make a fun place. It's not their fault some people sneak pills in their bras. (The New York Times)
• The Housing Authority wants to track its employees with a GPS-system. Is this even legal? (New York Post)
• Kehinde Wiley paints "modern heroic portraiture," and needs the space Brooklyn affords to do it. (New York)
• An eco-friendly guide to decorating your pad Brooklyn-style, of course. (New York)
• Buddakan: "It feels like an oversize nightclub, or a random gathering in the semi-abandoned mansion of some absent Cantonese billionaire. But then the food starts to arrive, and the mood changes. The theme is "modern Asian cuisine," which sounds like a recipe for disaster." (New York)

- Riva Froymovich

• Strike averted! The doormen's union was appeased with an 8.5 percent salary increase over four years Thankfully, Rupert will not have to open his own door at 834 Fifth.. (The New York Times)
• The flaneur is not respected in North America. There isn't even an equivalent in English. But the photobloggers--the wandering, curious breed--has brought the flaneur's art to America. (Maisonneuve via Polis)
• Horace Havemeyer III, founder and publisher of Metropolis magazine, reflects on a quarter-century in print. (Metropolis)
• The West Village will soon undulate with glass. Residents aren't happy. They saw enough undulating when Sex and the City was filming. (NY 1)
• Barry Diller's IAC building is still under construction, but here's a peek. (Test of Will)
• Steve Cuozzo does math. "The existing sidewalk cafes boast a mind-boggling 20,931 seats citywide, of which 17,240 are in Manhattan. (The numbers don't include gardens or patios.)" Then, he chokes on car exhaust. (New York Post)
• Another restaurant closes on Orchard Street, vegetarian newbie Heirloom. (Eater)
• Crowds cannot be held back from their sandwiches and croissants in Clinton Hill. Brownstoner fans review.
• The first town to be auctioned off on eBay back in 2002 returns to the market and Web site bidders, just like those vintage boots you never actually wore. (BBC)
• Firehouses turn residential, and condos become amateur playhouses. (New York Post)

- Riva Froymovich

The political blogosphere keeps growing.

We hear that before convention season starts at the end of May, the New York Times, which already has a blog following the Newark mayoral race, is expected to launch a political blog covering the races for New York Senate, Governor and Attorney General. The entire New York political staff will be contributing. A presidential blog can't be far behind.

The Daily News significantly bulked up its blog coverage this month (including bringing on former Politicker Ben Smith) and the New York Post is expected to soon follow suit in its political departments.

- Jason Horowitz

• We think Parker Posey should make a House of Yes out of the now vacant $32 million apartment at 1040 Fifth Avenue, where Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis lived, and bring along her pillbox hat and Freddie Prinze Jr. (The New York Times)
• Speaking of weird movies, The Urban Center is hosting a Water World-like lecture on modular cities. As our population continues to grow, New York's harbors and rivers may come to house another borough. (The Architectural League)
• In fact, New York has augmented its population more than any other city in the United States over the last 15 years by 800,000 people. (Gotham Gazette)
• Brooklyn Views goes Jane Jacobs on Forest City Ratner's ass and the company's plans for Pacific Street.
• Rent Guidelines Board hearings begin in spring with two newly appointed members, a move to up rents, according to ousted architect Martin Zelnick. (City Limits)
• Queens for Affordable Housing is putting up a logical argument: if the government's going to give tax breaks, include affordable housing in the building. (City Limits)
• Jackson Heights has retained much of its history despite a cold shoulder from the Landmarks Preservation Commission. (Forgotten NY)
• The principal of Brooklyn Technical High School was pushed out of his post because he called New Jersey home. (Gotham Gazette)
• After Bloomberg showed his support for the United Nations, the organization has abandoned plans to set up a short-term HQ on Robert Moses Playground. (New York Post)
• A designing jewelry lover's wet dream: Tiffany & Co. and Frank Gehry collaborate. (Tiffany)
• Philippe de Montebello of the Metropolitan Museum of Art defends looting...or something like that. (The New York Sun)
• Design criticism requires idealism and shared planning goals. "We have lost this now," Rick Poynor writes in Icon.
• New York City residents spend $128 million a year in Wal-Marts that surround the city, but City Council Speaker Christine Quinn couldn't care less because it's a "a bad corporate citizen." (Crain's)

- Riva Froymovich

• Mayor Bloomberg wants more, more, more near the WTC site. And, he's willing to shell out an equal amount for it. Developer Joseph Moinian might receive $50 million in Liberty Bonds for his hotel and condo tower. (The New York Sun)
• The brick layers and asbestos cleaners have a whole new building for themselves. (New York Daily News)
• The Nets wants to move to Brooklyn to make more money. Jay-Z is their inspiration, and financier. (The New York Times)
• The Corcoran Sunshine Group has two new leaders. We know you can't wait to find out... (New York Post)
• Years from now, Larry Silverstein will be deemed correct. Meanwhile, shall we scorn? (New York Post)
• Well-heeled Upper East Siders may have to learn how to open their front door while carrying their Barneys bags. (Gothamist)
• Patricia Field sexes up the Bowery. (The Village Voice)
• Williamsburg is not what it once was. Now, it's not just Hasids in the real estate game. Prudential Douglas Elliman is opening an office in the hood. (The Real Deal)
• Brad Pitt wants to be Frank Gehry, and Gehry wants to be Jay-Z, and they all want to capitalize on this thing we like to call a boom. (Yale Daily)

- Riva Froymovich

• Now that architect Renzo Piano has completed museums in New York, Houston, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco, others are starting to get jealous, and calling him a "safe" choice. His latest, the expansion of the Morgan Library and Museum collection, opens to the public on April 29. It is described by The New York Times' architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff as "a sublime expression of the architect's preoccupation with light, the design transforms the world of robber barons and dust-coated scholars conjured by the old Morgan into a taut architectural composition bursting with civic hope." Also of note: Piano is the architect of the new Times building.
• "In New York an artist's occupation often is staying one step ahead of the real-estate market." So, one enterprising gallery owner of the "hipster nation" is branching out to Leipzig, Germany. (The New York Times)
• A $168 million, 26-acre water park will likely be approved for Randalls Island. (The New York Times)
• About two-thirds of area residents accepted buyouts from the Atlantic Yards project. About 40 percent of the remaining neighbors rent in Ratner buildings. (The New York Times)
• Poets House is moving from Soho to Battery Park City. (The New York Times)
• Even townhouse owners like modern design, but they know better than to take it outside...or build a fence. (New York Post)
• Jonathan Miller makes a chilling observation: every country has housing issues. (Matrix)
• A Jewish community house will be replaced by a mixed-use tower, with a synagogue at the bottom and floor-through apartments at the top. Gevalt. (The New York Times)
• The Four Questions, inspired by Bruce Ratner. (via Curbed)

- Riva Froymovich

Hats off to Eve Kessler, a political reporter at the Forward who is moving on to the New York Post. Kessler is smart and on it. For instance, here she reported that Rhode Island Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee faces a primary challenge from Cranston mayor Stephen Laffey, who is backed by members of the Jewish community who see Chafee's pro-Arab comments as out of step with America.

Which brings up my hobbyhorse. Anyone who doubts the strength of the Israel lobby should note that within days of Kessler's article, Chafee was posturing as a rightwinger on these issues, attacking Condoleezza Rice for not doing more to prevent the Hamas victory...

We're a li