Results tagged “deputymayordandoctoroff”

The proposed expansion of the Jacob J. Javitz convention center is essentially dead in the water as government officials admitted that the amount of money it would cost to undertake the project would not be worth the marginal return on investment that additional tax revenues would provide. Empire State Development Corporation chairman Pat Foye testified that about half of the expansion plan's $1.6 billion budget would be consumed just making repairs to the existing Javits structure.

Mayor Bloomberg's generosity has been noted from educational institutions (like his alma mater Johns Hopkins) and even city organizations (like the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation). He gave staffers on his re-election campaign payouts as big as $300,000-400,000. And when Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff announced he would leave City Hall to become president of the mayor's business, Bloomberg LP, it suggested that the Mayor rewarded staffers he trusts. Well, the NY Times now looks at how some Bloomberg aides' salaries have grown since taking the government jobs in City Hall.

Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff, who was in charge of Economic Development and Rebuilding in the Bloomberg administration, announced he would resign by the end of the year. The Post called the news "stunning," but we'd like to call it "classic," because his new job will be president of a little company called Bloomberg LP. At a City Hall press conference, Mayor Bloomberg said, "As a result of Dan's efforts, we've allowed for the creation of...

Yesterday, Governor Spitzer, Mayor Bloomberg, MTA CEO and Executive Director Lee Sander and other officials kicked off the extension of the 7 line by unveiling a new sign in Times Square pointing the way to Hudson Yards. Ah, nothing like putting in signs for things that won't be ready for years - the 7 will reach 34th and 11th Avenue in 2013. The 7 line extension will cost $2 billion for the 1.5 miles...

A storefront at the corner of Vanderbilt Avenue and 43rd Street (across from Grand Central) may be a window into the future of the West Side Rail Yards. The MTA unveiled an exhibition of the five proposals to redevelop the rail yards on the Far West Side of Manhattan, and the public will get a chance to see the models every day (except Thanksgiving) through December 3. And what's more, the MTA wants the...

Another over-the-top Coney Island development proposal is in the works. Mayor Bloomberg unveiled a plan today to build the nation's biggest urban amusement park there, including 4,500 residential units (20 percent are set-asides for low- and middle-income housing) and some retail establishments. The proposal basically spells doom for Thor Equities' $1.5 million Vegas-style entertainment complex that can only get built if the city provides zoning for it. Don't worry, the Cyclone isn't going anywhere....

Were safety concerns about the Deutsche Bank's demolition ignored by aides to Governors Pataki and Spitzer and Mayor Bloomberg? That's what the NY Post is reporting, as the investigation into the August fire that claimed two firefighters lives continues.

The New York Times notes an interesting and under-stressed part of Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan that would charge drivers $8 for entering a certain zone in midtown and lower Manhattan: the plan is also going to charge drivers $8 to leave midtown and downtown Manhattan. The Times seems to think that charging drivers to exit a proposed congestion zone is counterintuitive, prompting Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff to admit that congestion pricing has less to do with reducing congestion, than just getting people not to drive in Manhattan at all.

Let's paraphrase what we wrote yesterday: How is it again, with Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff and Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan riding their bikes, that NYC remains a bike-unfriendly city? Yesterday, two bicyclists died in separate incidents in Brooklyn and the Bronx. At 9AM, 18-year-old Luis Ramos was biking to his job at George's Spanish and American Restaurant when a woman opened her car door in his path on Flushing Avenue near Beaver Street. The Post describes that "Ramos slammed into the door, flew over his handlebars and fell into traffic, where a school bus ran over him." Ramos' brother Lucas had been biking about two blocks behind him and saw the police at the scene. He said, "I ran over to him to hug him. But the cops told me not to touch him." Ramos was pronounced dead at Woodhull Hospital and the police did not issue any summons.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a water rescue at Emmons Ave. and Knapp St. in Brooklyn, a serious assault on West 37th St. and 11th Ave. in Manhattan, and a bank robbery on Flatlands Ave. in Queens.
• The body of the Ecuadorian man who was killed in a bar fight earlier this week will be returned home at the expense of a businessman, also from Ecuador, who appreciated the man's abbreviated attempt to support his family from abroad.
• The woman thought to have been trying to throw herself from the Staten Island Ferry in a suicide attempt was actually just drunk.
• Showing up subway-riding Mayor Bloomberg, Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff commutes to work on his bike. How is it again, with bike-riding DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, that NYC remains a bike-unfriendly city?
• Woody Allen is trying his hand at opera, from the safe distance of LA. He'll be staging one act of Puccini's three-part "Il Trittico" for the Los Angeles Opera company.
• A jury found that the author who published under the name JT Leroy did defraud a film company and she's been ordered to pay damages.
• The Snapple Theater Center has renamed the space currently hosting a revival of "The Fantasticks" The Jerry Orbach Theater.
• Politics reach a new level of childishness as Giuliani says of Bloomberg: He's copying me.

The Parks Department says that there are approximately 500,000 street trees decorating New York's five boroughs. That number is based on a 1996 survey. Another tree census was conducted last year and The New York Times puts the current number at nearly 592,000, out of a total of 5.2 million trees in the whole city. The new decade-long tree-planting project would add 210,000 street trees around the city.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: shots fired early this evening on Blake Ave. in Brooklyn, a homicide/suicide on 225th St. in Queens this afternoon, and a sexual assault early this morning on West 120th St. in Manhattan.
• City Council Speaker Christine Quinn wants black activist Sonny Carson stricken from the list of nominees for proposed street names because she thinks he was divisive and anti-white. Former Black Panther and current Brooklyn Council Member Charles Barron disagrees with the exclusion, noting that Brooklyn is full of streets named after racists and slaveholders, and calls Carson a hero.
• City Council members will vote on a proposal to restrict the growth of pedicabs in the city the day after Earth Day (Sunday the 22nd). Opponents hope the proximity of the two events will sway Council Members in favor of the pedicabs.
• The founder of the Zone Chefs diet service plead guilty along with several mobsters of running a boiler-room stock scheme designed to thin investors' wallets.
• Mayor Bloomberg reactivated a portion of the Staten Island Railroad in order to shift waste transfer from New York to New Jersey away from trucks and towards rail transport.
• Rep. Jerrold Nadler and City Councilwoman Gale Brewer are two more politicians who wrote letters in support of a class trip to Cuba, that wasn't actually a school event and that no one knew anything about at the time.
• Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff says the plan for a Santiago Calatrava-designed gondola is still in the works. The elaborate cable car system would transport passengers to and from Manhattan and Brooklyn via Governors Island.
• Despite pouring boiling water all over his victim to destroy DNA evidence, the Washington Hamilton Heights rapist did leave some at the scene and the police are in possession of it.
• The Tom Cruise-hosted fund-raiser to support a 9/11 rescue worker detoxification program isn't until tomorrow, but the City Council has already issued a proclamation honoring the late Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard for contributing his vitamin and sauna therapy program to the world.

It's on the cool side but today is the first full day of spring. While winter temperatures linger a day longer than they're supposed to let Gothamist entertain you with links to giant mutant snowflakes and snow donuts. Let us assure you that there is no snow in the forecast. There's a slight chance of light rain mixed with sleet late tonight, but no snow.

Post reports that building and construction permits are down this year. Some figures:

- Other world cities, many of which are competitors with New York for business investment and job creation, are moving aggressively to reduce the burden that traffic places on economic activity.The report recommends that the city investigate adding a congestion tax for cars, as well as increasing parking fees, adding more ferry service and designing better freight loading facilities.

- The Deutsche Bank might collapse as workers are still trying to clean it up

And once again Moynihan Station has hit a bump in the road. The Times today has a story on the newest set of roadblocks for the oft-delayed station. After years of delays the problems plaguing the station can still be summed up in one word: Politics.

They say that history repeats itself, but this is re-dunk-u-lous. Moynihan Station, the long-planned Penn Station expansion into the Farley Post Office that is intended to make up for the destruction of the late, great, original Penn Station (above) hasn't even been built yet but developers are already vying to build a new Madison Square Garden on top of and around it. And yes, this would be MSG number 5 for those of you keeping count at home.

As the Mayor, Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff and the NYC 2012 bid committee lick their wounds and the rest of the city breathes a sigh of relief, as after being dinged in the second round of Olympic voting for a 2012 site, the Mayor admits that the NYC bid "was a long shot," as the NY Times puts it. Mayor Bloomberg also called the bid "a unique opportunity" that helped NYC in many ways, from getting people to realize how wonderful the city is and to encourage development. Except for the West Side! And it seems that the West Side Stadium problems helped doom the NYC bid, though the implications that NYC's bid was about "power and money" and September 11 sympathies probably didn't help (London's bid emphasized bringing sports to youth, especially disadvantaged youth in the East End). The BBC, which has had great coverage, shows the vote tallies after each round, and NYC had a very low number of votes. Honestly, Gothamist never knew how much we cared about the NYC 2012 bid until we were rejected in the second round; we thought we could make it to the third round! Perhaps the Daily News' Mike Lupica sums things up best:

At least we will never again have to hear about how Dollar-a-Year Dan Doctoroff, the deputy mayor of New York City who should start moving toward the door now, sat at the Meadowlands in 1994 and watched a World Cup soccer game between Italy and Bulgaria and began dreaming of bringing the Olympics to New York.

- A boulevard between 10th and 11th Avenues up to 39th Street, with more fountains, cafes, and promenades.

Whereas formers mayors Giuliani and Dinkins tried to get public toilets on the streets (in large numbers), Bloomberg and the City Council are working surprisingly amicably together, probably to make sure the huge advertising revenue possible from this "street furniture" will come to fruition. J.C. Decaux is one of the more popular paying and self-cleaning public toilet "street furniture" manufacturers, with toilets in France and around U.S. cities like San Francisco and Chicago.