Tonight’s Bloomberg/Washington Post Republican debate focused on the economy and, though they differed on some specifics, the candidates were united in blaming the government for the financial crisis. Read More
Think of the perfect Saturday on the East Side. Brunch with your friends and the kids at, say, Fig & Olive, Artisinal or—the mayor’s favorite—Viand. Maybe a stroll along Madison for a little shopping and errands, and then off to Central Park to let the little ones wear themselves out before a nap. Or maybe it’s the other way around, soccer and softball in the park, a little tennis with friends or just some sunning on one of the lawns, then a late lunch.
Living East of Eden sure can be nice, but just like Adam and Eve, it always seems lie there is more outside the garden gates.
Not satisfied with their proximity to one of the loveliest parks in the world, East Siders have been lobbying for decades for more leisure land, particularly along the river. They look jealously on at their West Side brethren, with Riveside Park and Hudson River Park—and even the green shoots along the Brooklyn and Queens waterfront. Thanks to rampant development, from Robert Moses’ FDR Drive up through the Bloomberg Building on 59th and Lexington, the East Side has grown more crowded every day, and yet access to the water, a mere mile away, has been all but impossible. Read More
Master of ceremonies Nate Westheimer cut the demos short last night to introduce NY Tech Meetup to a surprise guest, a former Wall Street worker who had seen the light and invested his life savings into a tech startup instead.
"Hello innovators, entrepreneurs, or as I call you, my peeps," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who likes to break the ice with a little slang for the youths. "Thirty years ago I would have been sitting out there with you. I was unemployed, I had a lot of passion, but no business."
Read More
Last week, the city’s labor unions joined the Occupy Wall Street protests in earnest, swelling the ranks of the demonstrators from a couple of hundred to tens of thousands. Before the scene was marred by a couple of sporadic outbursts of violence, a half-dozen or so members of the City Council stopped by Zuccotti Park to raise a fist and become among the first elected officials in New York City to officially declare solidarity with the demonstration.
Margaret Chin was not among them, despite being the city councilwoman who represents Lower Manhattan, including the areas “occupied.” Which was odd, because Ms. Chin is one the most liberal members of the New York City Council, a part of the “Progressive Caucus” and someone who has by her own reckoning marched on the financial district many, many times before, including a smaller, but highly publicized May 12 rally “to make big banks and millionaires pay.” Read More
The Occupy Wall Street protestors took The Observer's advice and decided to hit 'em where it hurts: at home. They marched on the Upper East Side today, setting up camp outside the homes of richie riches David Koch, Jamie Dimon, John Paulson and Rupert Murdoch.
At a press conference today, Mayor Bloomberg was asked about the march, and while he continued to uphold the protestors rights to do pretty much as they pleased in the city, he did not appreciate them picking on his neighbors. Read More
By the end of the month, Chris Ward, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, will be out of a job. Some of his aides and allies—and even possibly the big man himself—think they have a good position lined up for The Man Who Saved Ground Zero: mayor of New York City.
“Mayor Bloomberg has changed the public perception of what it means to be mayor, and that is a good and a bad thing” one Ward aide involved in the recruitment efforts told The Politicker. “People think this is a job for someone outside of politics. Chris kind of fits that bill. He is a chief executive, and chief executive of a huge municipality. Do we want to revert to form after we’ve broken the mold?”
While most of the pressure has come from those in Mr. Ward’s orbit and a few outsiders (call them the Wardens!), the lumbering, loquacious life-long civil servant would not pass up Gracie Mansion if the opportunity presented itself. Over the past few months, since things started to go south at the Port Authority under deteriorating relations with Governor Andrew Cuomo, Mr. Ward has been saying in private that he would not mind running for political office, in particular mayor, according to a person present for some of those conversations.
So long as the political—and financial—support is there, there may well be a Chris Ward candidacy. Read More
During his liftetime, Steve Jobs managed to sell hundreds of millions of Apple products. Now that he’s gone, President Obama hopes the late Apple founder can help sell the controversial $447 billion American Jobs Act. Read More
A new book by a woman at the center of the Anthony Weiner text-messaging scandal reveals some damning details about the disgraced lawmaker.
According to Traci Nobles, a former cheerleading coach who exchanged messages with Mr. Weiner, he sent explicit messages from his congressional office and bragged about masturbating in the House bathrooms.
The book is called “I Friended You” and excerpts were obtained by The Daily Mail.
In the excerpts, Mr. Weiner also complained about his wife’s family, saying that since they were Muslim they never accepted him. Read More
Almost immediately after hitting publish on a round-up of the latest hubbub over plans to build an engineering campus in New York, Betabeat got an intriguing tip from an interested party. Apparently Cornell isn't the only school tapping power players to help their campaign.
"About two weeks ago Stanford hired City Hall 'fixer' Bradley Tusk and his consulting firm Tusk Strategies to seal the deal on this Tech Campus bid," wrote the source. We confirmed the tip with Tusk Strategies, but we needn't have. The Stanford Daily actually reported the hire in a small item in late September, along with the news that the school had also signed up Edelman, the global public relations firm that also represents Wal-Mart.
Mr. Tusk, the man The Observer called Bloomberg's "secret weapon," back in 2010, engineered the mayor's third term reelection in 2009. Coincidentally, Mr. Tusk was also hired by Wal-Mart earlier this year to the lead the corporation's push into New York. The New York Times reported that Mr. Tusk, "is still close to the mayor, a strong supporter of Wal-Mart’s campaign." Read More
