One hundred thirteen years ago, Virginia O'Hanlon wrote to the New York Sun asking, "DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.' Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?" leading to the paper to publish one of the most famous editorials in the history of print, which started off, "VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age... Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy." more ›

Yesterday, Bloomberg LP announced that it would be adding editorials to the vast Bloomberg media empire. Run by NY Times op-ed page editor David Shipley and former assistant U.S. Department of State Assistant Secretary Jamie Rubin (aka husband of Christiane Amanpour), Bloomberg LP Editor in Chief Matthew Winkler said the pair will develop the "Bloomberg View consistent with the values and beliefs of our global company and its internationally-minded founder, Michael R. Bloomberg." more ›

Senator Charles Schumer has an op-ed in today's Post, explaining the financial reform bill in the Senate. This comes just two day after Post slammed him and other Congressional Democrats in an editorial, "What's the point of having a high muckety-muck like Chuck Schumer sitting in the US Senate if he refuses to fight for New York's best interests? And that goes double for his hapless little poodle, Kirsten Gillibrand. Congress is poised to rip the heart out of New York's economy -- i.e., Wall Street -- while Sens. Schumer and Gillibrand stand by dumb as fence posts." more ›

The NY Post editor who was fired after complaining about a controversial political cartoon depicting the author of Obama's stimulus package as a dead chimpanzee has filed a major lawsuit against the tabloid, News Corp, and Post editor in chief Col Allan. It's a doozy! In the 38 page complaint, Sandra Guzman accuses her former employer of ignoring racist and sexual harassment, and depicts the Post newsroom as a male-dominated frat house run by the crude, misogynistic Allan. Hardly surprising, but her accusations are juicy nonetheless: more ›

The NYPD may have time to ticket folks drinking a non-life-threatening lager on their stoop, but they are way too busy to ticket jaywalkers. At least, that's what Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday, suggesting New Yorkers practice common sense when crossing the street illegally. more ›

The Drudge Report says Senator John McCain submitted an op-ed to the NY Times, hoping for some equal time as Senator Barack Obama's "Plan for Iraq" was published last week, but the Times turned it down. Apparently NYT Op-Ed editor David Shipley emailed the McCain campaign, "It would be terrific to have an article from Senator McCain that mirrors Senator Obama's piece. I'm not going to be able to accept this piece as currently written." Drudge Report has McCain's editorial submission, as does Politico, which headlines it "McCain camp continues Drudge courtship." more ›

Newspapers all over the country are paying close attention to the stunning news that Governor Eliot Spitzer paid for a prostitute - and was apparently a regular client - to "visit" him from NY to DC. Our local papers all take a shot at the former crusading Attorney General who rode into the Governor's Mansion on a promise of reforming Albany. more ›

The 20-member New York Times editorial board nearly endorsed Barack Obama for president, but ultimately Times chairman and publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. pushed through a Clinton endorsement, anonymous sources have told The New Republic. The behind-the-scenes article echoes conjecture from New York Magazine that Sulzberger’s BFF gym buddy Steven Rattner, a major Clinton donor and former Times reporter, may have been the deciding factor. more ›

The NY Times' editorial board has made its endorsements for the upcoming primaries. While the Times' selection of Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama is interesting (the Times cites experience), we're very taken with the editorial about the Republican candidates. more ›

Mayor Bloomberg may be finding that coy flirtation can be cute at first, but quickly becomes old and aggravating if carried on for too long. The New York Times has a story today describing a growing backlash against a Mayor who seems preoccupied with something big, but it's something big that he won't discuss, or even acknowledge. more ›

Yesterday, East Harlem residents protested "greedy landlords" to raise concerns about gentrification. One resident, Otoniel Santiago, told amNew York that his $1,100 rent for his family's two-bedroom has zoomed up to $3,000 because of extra charges his landlord has added, "They said I had to pay or they would take legal action. I think they want us to get tired and move out, then they will bring in people who will pay $1,700 a month." more ›

Governor Eliot Spitzer's "ChopperGate" has more of a stink today: It turns out that two of his senior aides refused to speak with the Attorney General's office during the investigation. While the investigation ultimately found that Spitzer aides didn't technically break the law when they were trying to use State Police records to discredit State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, it makes it hard to believe Spitzer's assertion that his aides had cooperated fully with the AG's office. more ›

The New Yorker was actually shut out, not garnering a single award for any of its nine nominations; it was the most-nominated publication in 2007. New York's five awards were for General Excellence (250,000 to 500,000 circulation), Profile Writing, Magazine Section, and Design. The magazine's online site nymag.com won an award for Interactive Feature. Other big winners last night were National Geographic and Vanity Fair, with two awards each. Rolling Stone, Wired, Foreign Policy, and Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists were other winners of General Excellence awards. If you'd like to judge for yourself, links to all of the nominated and winning articles are available here. more ›

Light Criticism, from the Graffiti Research Lab and Anti-Advertising Agency. more ›

- The private cops at Co-Op City go on strike; check out this old Village Voice article about Co-Op City more ›

Since it's obviously National Hangover Week and no one does hangovers better than New York artists, it's a rather slow week (again!) in readings and literary events. Next week looks like it's picking up a fair bit, though, and we're excited about several events, so tune in next Tuesday. more ›

Fighting words from Fernando Ferrer. He tells the Daily News Editorial Board that he would scale down the Brooklyn Nets arena plan "dramatically," noting that there were "apparent abuses of eminent domain." Mayor Bloomberg's campaign says that the Brooklyn Yards plan will bring more jobs and housing to the community, but even Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz says the plan should be scaled back, because that's what the community wants. Interesting! And in a speech in Stuyvesant Town, Ferrer invoked his two New York theme: "The average price of an apartment in Manhattan is well over $1 million - that may be affordable in Mike Bloomberg's New York, but not in the New York where the rest of New York lives." Amen. But is Ferrer's plan to take control of rent control from the state going to work? The Times says Bloomberg once supported that strategy, but the administrative costs were too much for the city to bear. Which makes Gothamist wonder how big would those costs be - like, are they that staggering that the city would have to raise taxes for residents that much? Anyway, the Mayor had it both ways when he discussed the Iraq War and MTA discounting, vaguely seeing both sides of situation. We call that the "I can't take a stand unless it involves knocking out Larry Silverstein"-12- days- before- election dance. more ›

Mayor Bloomberg wasn't kidding about wanting a bigger role in the redevelopment of Ground Zero: He made sure the Daily News could tell World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein that Bloomberg wanted him to "Butt out, Larry". Gotta love the tabs and how they cut to the chase. Bloomberg told the Daily News Editorial Board, "It would be in the city's interest to get Silverstein out, [but] nobody can figure out how to do it yet. And can you imagine the stink if you gave him half a billion dollars or a billion dollars in profit to get him out?" Not if it's your own money, Bloomberg! more ›

We've developed another survey to get our readers' opinions. We're trying to make sure we're doing the best, sp this time the survey asks questions about Gothamist's Editorial and other blog-reading habits. If you have a few minutes (it's very short), we'd appreciate it if you could answer. more ›

The NY Times had a pro-Pale Male editorial and the Post has a conservationist explain that needing to build a new nest may affect Pale Male's breeding ability. Plus our readers debate the issue.
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As I mentioned earlier, Gothamist is rolling out some new features. Today, we're launching the beta version of the Gothamist Events feed, a listing of concerts, shows, happenings, pow-wows, drunken posses, and other occurances that we feel may interest you, our surly, panda-obsessed readership. more ›