Results tagged “clydehaberman”

As reports come in about Zimbabwean voters being threatened "into voting for Robert Mugabe's" party today, the NY Times' Clyde Haberman remembers when the controversial leader was welcomed at City Hall back in 2002. City Councilman Charles Barron, who hosted Mugabe, doesn't regret the invite and tells Haberman, "Does he do things that I disagree with? Yes," but then adds, "You didn’t care about black Africans when whites were killing them in Rhodesia." [Here's the Human Rights on Zimbabwe.]

Ooof. Talk about insulting. In today's Times, Clyde Haberman goes so far as to compare the Dolan clan to the Mario Puzo's Corleone family from his Godfather series of books. That comparison to the Dolans is clearly a slap in the face to the Corleones. Haberman says that any "enormously rich and influential business family would do as a replacement" and casts Jim Dolan, Chairman of Madison Square Garden, as "the hapless Fredo Corleone." If Jim is Fredo, where is Michael - and the kiss of death? There's gotta be some other unscrupulous families that to which the Dolans can compare (Spears family, anyone?).

Mayor Bloomberg continued his whirlwind tour through Asia yesterday with a stop in Bali, Indonesia to talk to United Nations officials about the global effects of climate change. This is after a foray to China, that brought to mind Ed Koch's Beijing inspiration for bike paths in NYC to The New York Times' Clyde Haberman. Like NYC, Bali was the victim of a devastating terrorist attack that killed and injured hundreds of people.

Mayor Bloomberg will be speaking at a United Nations conference in Indonesia, but he made a stop in Beijing first. He said to the audience at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, "Some people believe that by mid-century, as [much] as 75 percent of China's population may be city dwellers. Even an occasional visitor to China, like me, is struck by this rapid urbanization. It is one of the largest internal migrations by people in...

The second taxi strike ended this morning at 5AM and most of the reaction was either that it didn't even seem like there was a strike, what with all the cabs on the road, or that it was a rip-off. Thanks to the zoned-pricing contingency plan the city put into place, drivers were allowed to charge a lot more and pick up more fares. One person told WCBS 2 it was really a "taxi hike": "I wanted go three blocks down the block, a regular $5 cab ride. He wanted a flat rate of $50. I got out of the cab and walked."

Yesterday, MTA CEO and executive director Lee Sander took the case for subway and bus fare hikes to the people by standing at the Grand Central shuttle platform yesterday morning. The MTA has argued that with looming billion-dollar deficits, fare hikes, as well as agency cuts, are the only way for the MTA to stay afloat without trimming service. According to the NY Times, very few people stopped to talk to Sander who was handing out a leaflet called "The Fare Facts" which cited "growing pension and debt service costs" as why fares should go up.

At any rate, it seems that Spitzer's no-nonsense, desire for ethical politics (ha!) is what most the state needs, the wake of a various revelations and scandals. At least, until the first Spitzer era screw-up. But you have to hand it to a Governor who runs a 2-mile mile in under 14 minutes to start off his term. The NY Times' Clyde Haberman looks at how Pataki's first inaugural speech 12 years ago sounded a lot like Spitzer's call for change and the Daily News' Errol Louis notices the display of diversity at the inaugural.

- The NY Times reports that the Democratic party will decide on where the 2008 convention will be held either tomorrow or Monday. New York and Denver are the finalist cities; while Denver is attractive for its swing-state quality, NYC can guarantee better "financing, hotel rooms, entertainment space, logistical support and labor union cooperation."

“The guy never even came over to see what had happened,” Ms. Kelly said in a near-whisper. “He got out of his truck and walked away.” As she pleaded for someone to call 911, the driver and some of his colleagues “just stood off and watched,” she said. “Nobody offered anything, nothing like, ‘Can I help?’ That all came from other bikers who came upon the scene.”

Earlier this week, Transportation Alternatives released a study that finds relationships between people's behavior and the neighborhoods they live in. For instance, someone who lives on a high traffic street is less likely to go outside and enjoy the neighborhood or let the children play while someone on a quieter street would get to do those things. Plus:

The study finds that New Yorkers on high traffic streets harbor more negative perceptions of their block, are more frequently disturbed during sleep, meals, and conversations, and, in two of the four study areas, possess significantly fewer relationships with their neighbors compared to residents on low and medium traffic streets. Based on these findings, it is no surprise that 49% of all respondents stated that reducing the number of cars traversing their street would "totally improve" their quality of life. Of those respondents residing on heavy traffic streets, that figure jumps to 62%.

The residents surveyed live in Astoria, Brooklyn Heights, Chinatown, and High Bridge (and spoke to people on streets of varying traffic in each neighborhood).

- A building facade collapse in the Lower East Side caused the MTA to reroute the F and V trains; Curbed reports that it was the LoSide diner

The NY Times has a detailed article about the dilemma of some of the city's Democrats who are Bloomberg Democrats (because, if you will remember, the Mayor was originally a Democrat before he switched parties so he could actually run and win - he's a Democrat in Republican's clothing some say): What do they do on September 13, Primary Day? Do they vote for a candidate to sandbag Fernando Ferrer into a run-off? Do they vote to someone they (gasp!) might actually like? Or do they stay at home? The city's Democratic party is definitely at the nadir, if it's pretty much a game of rock, paper, scissors to figure out what to do at the polls. What's funny in that funny-sad way is many Bloomberg Democrats may make Anthony Weiner a beneficiary of their eh-ness about their own partiy's candidates, probably because Weiner hasn't had as many head-to-head clashes with the mayor as the other candidates who are city fixtures.

Ah, there's nothing like Clyde Haberman taking on cell phone service in the subways in his NY Times column:

Say goodbye to some of the last refuges from the endless, witless yakking on cellphones that is epidemic in this city.

Continue reading "Inconsiderate Cell Phone Usage on Subways to Come"

The NY Times' Clyde Haberman ups the ante and asked 927 Fifth Avenue protesters if they ever protested for the rights of homeless New Yorkers. And tonight, PBS station WNET Thirteen will be broadcasting the documentary Pale Male at 8PM. Plus, Jo Miller and WhatISee (photos 1, 2) on the subject.

After a year of build up, the NYC Subway system officially turns 100 today. We love how the NY Times' Randy Kennedy starts his feature about the subway's 100th year (which has some nice interactive features as well):

For a New Yorker just one day shy of turning 100 years old, the subway kept crazy hours yesterday. In other words, there were no hours it did not keep. As its neighbors around the world locked up their stations and turned out their lights, the subway started a new day, just as it has more than 36,000 times since Oct. 27, 1904.

Of course, Gothamist is worried that the subway will no longer be the 24 hour party animal with looming budget problems, but we're going to try to stay focused on the wonders the subway does bring us. Today, Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Pataki, MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow, Ms. Subways, and other dignitaries will take a nostalgia train from City Hall Station, to reenact the first subway ride 100 years ago to the day by Mayor McLellan. They will be riding in this train, the Lo-V train, to 42nd Street. And City Hall station was recently reopened for the event, though it's just a temporary opening; here's a gallery of City Hall station, which is a truly dazzling station (chandeliers!) and makes Gothamist wish it could be open permanently. And the Straphangers are offering a slice of Junior's cheesecake to the first 100 people to sign a birthday card to the subway at the Municipal Arts Society's Urban Gallery (457 Madison Avenue at 51st Street) starting at 1:30PM in Midtown, according to Newsday.

Websites for Senator Charles Schumer and Assembly Howard Mills. Clyde Haberman on the Senate race. And New Yorkers, you have until this Friday to register to vote. Do it!

Gothamist on the mistake.

Clyde Haberman's Times column earlier this week looked at a few reality show ideas for NY, what with The Restaurant and tonight's premiere of The Apprentice. Some are very apt:

Hung side by side, with no space between them, the 30-inch-wide competition panels would stretch nearly two and a half miles, roughly the distance from the trade center site to Union Square. Were the 40-inch-high panels set top to bottom (admittedly, not a conventional exhibition arrangement), they would rise to the height of nearly 14 Empire State Buildings.

Continue reading "WTC Memorial Entries To Be Displayed - All 5,201 of 'em"

To a relatively brawl free Game 5.

In today's Metro Section, Clyde Haberman, closet Gothamist, applauds the Belmont Stakes for changing their official song from "Sidewalks of New York" (which you might know from Ken Burns' documentary on the City, if no where else) to the slightly more up to date "New York, New York". Haberman feels however, that our fair Gotham is poorly represented by the whinings of a "self-involved parvenu who wants to be 'king of the hill, top of the heap.'" He goes on to suggest several other songs that might replace it, including: "New York, New York (It's a Helluva Town)" by Leonard Bernstein, "New York State of Mind" by Billy Joel, "I Happen to Like New York" by Cole Porter, "New York" by U2, "We Run N.Y." by Redman, "Manhattan" by Rodgers and Hart, and "N.Y.C." from the musical "Annie" with music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin.

Newsday looks at Joseph Lelyveld's first day on the job as interim executive editor at the Times, which included rallying the troops. He told staffers, "So, let's go to work. Let's really go to work." Which echoes Clyde Haberman's claim that nothing was getting done in the midst of the management chaos.

On yesterday's Reliable Sources, Howard Kurtz covered "The Crisis at the Times" - the fallout from the Jayson Blair fiasco. Among his guests were Times columnist Clyde Haberman, Newsweek Editor Mark Whitaker, and the NY Post's media reporter, Keith Kelly.