Do you mind if we dance with your dates?

From the Times today: the fourth and final article in a series examining the workings of New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission. Today's title: Preservation and Development, Engaged in a Delicate Dance

[S]ome preservationists and politicians assert that, under a mayoral administration that has emphasized new construction — from behemoth stadiums to architecturally bold condo towers — big developers have too often been allowed to lead on the dance floor. Some accuse the landmarks commission, charged with guarding the city’s architectural heritage, of backing off too readily when important developers’ interests are at stake.

Mayor Mike's monarchy

Fred Siegel, senior fellow of the Manhattan Institute's Center for Civic Innovation, has an opinion piece in today's Post titled "KING BLOOMBERG:
MIKE IS A MAYOR RUN AMOK."

An excerpt:

While arguing over whether to reauthorize Off Track Betting, the Mayor clashed with the normally mild-mannered Governor Paterson, whose support is essential for the city; Paterson came away describing the mayor to the Post's Fred Dicker as "a nasty, untrustworthy, tantrum-prone liar who has little use for average New Yorkers."

Another!

Bloomberg is so committed to his ideal of the "luxury city" run by and for the wealthy and organized interest groups that the Wall Street collapse took him completely by surprise. Like Lindsay's successor, the hapless Abe Beame, Bloomberg seems not to understand what's happening around him. His budget projections are based on the notion that the future economic path will be shaped like a U, but it's more likely to look like an L.

New York, which became ever more dependent on Wall Street's high rollers to create each new job a thousand-dollar meal at a time, is going to have to rethink its economic future. Wall Street as we knew it is never coming back. The high taxes and over-regulation Bloomberg prefers pushes out the small- to medium-size businesses that will have to drive much of our economic growth in the future.

C'MON PEOPLE! THERE'S STILL TIME TO KEEP THE DREAM ALIVE! WE CAN DO IT! NINE HOURS TILL THE POLLS CLOSE

14 year old against Bloomy's third term (no matter where she may actually go to school)

LimeWire has the following post on Rachel Trachtenburg:

At 14 years old, the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players drummer (and daughter of its singer/guitar player Jason and costumer/slideshow operator Tina) is already playing a more active role in local politics than most of us ever will.

New Yorkers are, by now, familiar with the proposal to extend term limits and allow our mayor, Michael Bloomberg, to run for the city's highest office a third time. As part of the process, the city council is now holding public hearings, allowing citizens to argue for or against the plan. On Thursday, Rachel spoke to the council, making the case against allowing Bloomberg to seek a third term.

In her testimony, Rachel told the council that, because Bloomberg raised taxes to give money to the Yankees and move the fountain in Washington Square Park slightly (and continuously sided with landlords on rent stabilization and affordable housing issues, I might add), her family was priced out of their East Village home. Now, they live in Bushwick, where their friends are often mugged at gunpoint. "Any monkey can raise taxes," says Rachel. "No offense to monkeys."

Meanwhile, BushwickBK.com has an important addition to the story:

A minute of research shows that Rachel is enrolled in school in SEATTLE — which means her family’s apartment in New York is at best a business necessity and at worst a luxury or status item, even if it is now in Bushwick. Boo. Hoo.

VIPs leaving City Hall

Bet I know who the Mayor was with!



Wonder what Elmo thinks of the third term...

New York City to become wedding destination

The Manhattan Marriage Bureau is on the second floor of the Municipal Building downtown. As the Times describes today, its hallways are "lined with cracked tile floors, fading yellow walls and dim fluorescent lighting where city employees . . . have been giving true love a brief, secular send-off since 1916."

No more, though. This fall, the Bureau moves to shiny new digs up the street at Centre and Worth. Why the move? Stupid question! As the Times notes:

The relocation will mean more than just swapping one space for another, or reconfiguring furniture into new surroundings. What will happen, in fact, is the death of the marriage bureau as Manhattan has known it for generations: a storied but shabby place, long on protocol but short on charm and comfort.

The move, an idea that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has nursed for almost as long as he has been in office, was inspired in part by concerns about dignity. The bureau’s appearance has not changed much over its 92 years, and despite periodic renovations, Room 257 — which houses the wedding chapel — looks as bureaucratically stiff as all the other Municipal Building offices. The chapel itself has no adornment except a pulpit used by the handful of officiants who perform the ceremonies.

The other reason for the switch is purely strategic. City officials see in the revamped marriage bureau an opportunity to market the city as a wedding destination, offering it as a more tasteful alternative to Las Vegas.

[T]here will be are doors coated in bronze, heating-unit covers fashioned by a Brooklyn artisan to match the building’s Art Deco style, and ornate columns throughout the 5,000-square-foot space

.

I know a few couples who were married at City Hall. They've said there is something romantic about the drab surroundings. If they wanted fancy (say, art deco style and ornate columns), they'd have got hitched in a hotel ballroom somewhere. According to city records, there have been 1.2 million weddings at the Bureau since 1930. Here are a few of them, via YouTube.

Four more years of Bloomberg?

Looks that way. (New York Post)

Our billionaire mayor speaks out on the "I want it now" society

An "I want it now" society that refuses to live within its means is partly responsible for the subprime-mortgage crisis, Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday.

"I think you just can't blame the banks," he said, taking borrowers to task.

"They say, 'I want the great American dream. I want it now and I'm not going to wait until I put some money in the bank.' . . That's where we lost the moral compass of saying no to people who did not have the earning capacity to support a mortgage."

(New York Post)

"Nightlife destination" mania continues: 10 new applicants for full liquor licenses on the docket

Save the Lower East Side! brings news regarding the Community Board 3 committee that reviews liquor licenses. Its first meeting of the season is Sept. 15, 6:30 p.m., at 200 E 5th St., corner of Bowery.

Rob reports:

As Among the 40 applications, there are no fewer than 10 new applications for full liquor licenses (called "op" for "on premises" -- scroll down to item 21).

They're everywhere: one on Grand; another just around the corner from it on Eldridge Street; Chrystie is getting hit; around the corner on Rivington too; Allen off Stanton (right next to Epstein's Bar); 2 on 10th Street. Some are restaurants, some are bars; all add to the "nightlife destination" mania, the rising commercial rents, the selling off of the LES to Generation Bloomberg.