Show biz is big biz in NYC these days, according to a study by the Boston Consulting Group, which says the film and television industry generated $7.1 billion dollars in revenue for New York City last year, an increase of over $2 billion dollars annually since 2002. An estimated 130,000 people are employed by film and TV productions in the city, an increase of 30,000 jobs since 2004. Which we guess makes up for that one time a production assistant made us wait to cross the street.
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Results tagged “mayorbloomberg”
Film And TV Productions Spent Over $7 Billion In NYC Last Year
How Powerful And Connected Is Mayor Bloomberg? Infographic Reveals All
Who would think that the billionaire bard and three-term mayor of New York City, who runs an international media company worth hundreds of billions of dollars and gives away hundreds of millions through various philanthropies is also powerful and well-connected?
Mayor's Office Releases Edited, Yet Still Damning, 911 Response Report
Even in an edited version, that report on New York City's 911 system that Bloomberg had to be ordered by a judge to release reportedly does not paint a pretty picture of our city's emergency preparedness. The Mayor's office today released a 133-page version of the 216-page report from a group of outside consultants. We haven't gotten our hands on it yet, but it reportedly "found that call operators waste time on duplicative questions and employ inconsistent questioning procedures. The system, it found, sends some responders to the wrong address and slows fire and medical dispatchers' efforts to give instructions to callers." Oh, good.
Violent iPhone Theft Isn't Really A Concern For Billionaire Bloomberg
iPhone-related thefts are up 44 percent this year, but that doesn't really seem to bother Mayor Bloomberg. At his budget announcement yesterday Hizzoner was asked about the spike in crime and replied nonchalantly that, "If the worst problem we have is iPhone stealing..." Then he turned to the police commissioner added, "Ray, you’d better get on this iPhone right away. This is serious!" Somehow we suspect the parents of the chef killed for his iPhone, or the teen stabbed in the face for his, or the 81-year-old pushed in the subway tracks for his, wouldn't appreciate the mayor's tone.
GOP Bigwigs Mull 2013 Candidates, Including Bloomberg's Girlfriend
With the Democratic candidates for mayor pretty well locked up, much has been made about who will run on the other side. There have been lots of rich people pushing for Police Commissioner Ray Kelly to make a go for it, and billionaire John Catsimatidis has expressed interest if Kelly declines, but there are others! What would you think our current Mayor's girlfriend Diana Taylor made a go for Gracie Mansion? She's has been wanting to spend a night there and previously mulled a Senate run—and it appears that GOPers have noticed.
Even Steven: $500 Million Settlement From CityTime Scandal Saves City Budget!
When life gives you a billion-dollar boondoggle, use the settlement to make budget-saving lemonade! At least that appears to be Mayor Bloomberg's logic. Hizzoner is set to announce his executive budget proposal this morning, but yesterday he gave a little early taste and it's something of a surprise. In order to fill "an unexpected hole in the budget" the city is planning on using that half-billion CityTime settlement the city announced in March. See, there's a silver lining in the city getting swindled!
Comptroller To Bloomberg: Make Cabs Wheelchair Accessible!
[Update Below] That "Taxi of Tomorrow" that Mayor Bloomberg so happily showed off last month may not be hitting the streets as fast as Nissan and the TLC might hope. In the latest blow to the handicap inaccessible vehicle, thorn in Bloomberg's side Comptroller John Liu has written to the mayor making a strong argument that the city needs to rethink the contract or prepare to have it sent back by his office.
Mitt Romney Has Private Meeting With Mayor Bloomberg
Mayor Bloomberg isn't running for president this year (we don't think) so instead he's having meals with the 2012 candidates. In February, Bloomberg had lunch with President Obama and, today, he had breakfast with Republican candidate Mitt Romney. Isn't it great that Bloomberg Businessweek spiked that "battered Mitt" cover?
City Council Passes Living Wage Bill, Looks Forward To Overriding Bloomberg's Veto
Yesterday, after a contentious press conference, the City Council passed the living wage bill, in a 45-5 vote.
Watch Christine Quinn Storm Out Of Press Conference After Someone Calls Bloomberg "Pharoah"
Christine Quinn did the political equivalent of "dropping the mic" today as she left a living wage press conference in a huff after someone from the crowd shouted something about "Pharoah Bloomberg." Quinn turned to the heckler and said, "That's not appropriate…In democracy, people have the right to have different views and they do not, we do not, have the right to then call them names." She then said, “Congratulations on the bill, I’m not going to participate in any name-calling," and walked away.
Bloomberg Refuses Comment On NYPD's May Day Training
On Friday a tipster sent us an email noting that several hundred NYPD officers had been conducting training exercises on Randall's Island in preparation for May Day's protests. While the sources of other journalists confirmed that information, Mayor Bloomberg declined to go into specifics today when asked about the training by the Voice. "We are prepared for everything we can think of all the time. Our tactics are something that we don't talk about in advance for obvious reasons." Occupy's wide range of scheduled events, both "official" and covert, promise to spread the department's resources from Lower Manhattan to Midtown.
Behold The Primal Poetry Of Poetaster Bloomberg
Did you know that Mayor Bloomberg is an amateur poet? To get in the spirit of NYC's 10th annual "Poem In Your Pocket Day," the mayor submitted his latest ode to the city: "50.5 Million Can't Be Wrong." This is the fifth time the mayor has taken part in the event (here's one of his past ones)—but of course, not every amateur poet gets their verse displayed on MTV's giant screen in Times Square. Below, behold the agile verbal wit of Bloomberg, with all of his references to the shadows and shades of mortality Tebowing, Gaga, and Unisphere.
U.S. Justice Department Investigating Allegations Of Wal-Mart Bribery In Mexico
Wal-Mart's Mexican problems are not going away. After a Times report alleged that the company was bribing officials south of the border willy nilly in an effort to expand as quickly as possible, the big box behemoth is now facing a U.S. Department of Justice criminal investigation. All of which is giving the chain's foes in the Big Apple lots more ammunition.
Billionaire NYC Mayoral Wannabe John Catsimatidis Carries Same Gun As James Bond
Over the weekend we received an email from an AOL account, asking us to "FIND OUT THE TRUTH ALWAYS" with regard to our recent (and long-standing) coverage of billionaire Gristedes CEO John Catsimatidis. Turns out, the email was from THE MAN HIMSELF, who urged us to give him a call this morning. We spoke to Catsimatidis (who carries the same gun as James Bond) about whether he'll actually run for mayor, Stand Your Ground laws, and how, despite his outsized personality, he's really just a "plain vanilla person."
NYU's New School Used To Have A Special Money Train Station, And Other Fun Facts
This morning Mayor Bloomberg's office gleefully announced that, with its new Center for Urban Sciences and Progress (CUSP), NYU would be leading the charge to bring a second high-tech campus to the city in addition to Cornell's forthcoming school on Roosevelt Island. This afternoon we stopped by the Mayor's press conference at NYU-Poly in Downtown Brooklyn, across from the site of the new school at 370 Jay Street, for all the back patting, self-congratulations and occasionally interesting tidbits.
NYU Gets Downtown Brooklyn Land For New High-Tech School
Mayor Bloomberg's plan to bring more high-tech applied sciences to the city keeps moving forward and NYU, hot off of scaling back its NYU 2031 plans, is the big winner. As expected. Brooklyn is the new Manhattan, after all. All of which is to say: Today the mayor is set to announce the creation of The Center for Urban Science and Progress in the current MTA building at 370 Jay Street.
Video: Stephen Colbert Names Firefighting Cory Booker "Alpha Dog Of The Week"
Capping off a gangbusters week of widespread adulation following his daring rescue of a woman from a burning building, Newark mayor Cory Booker was awarded the highest honor for valor last night when Stephen Colbert named him his "Alpha Dog of the Week." In the segment below, Colbert salutes Booker for his quick-thinking resourcefulness: "He is so hands on, one time he even pulled himself over and sued himself for racial profiling."
Nanny Bloomberg To Promote Breastfeeding Initiative
Breast is best, as the lactivists repeatedly tell everyone, but now one man is making sure new parents know about it: Father-of-two Mayor Bloomberg. The Post reports, "The Health Department is pushing a sweeping initiative to prod dozens of city hospitals to get more moms in their maternity wards to breast feed, The Post has learned. It’s called the 'Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative.'"
Pollster Calling About Bloomberg Saves Woman's Life, But She Still Hates Bloomberg
An elderly Upper West Side woman was going into diabetic shock in her apartment when her life was saved by a pollster calling to ask her opinions about Mayor Bloomberg. 79-year-old Bobby Berlin was asleep but in dire straights Monday night when the computer pollster operated by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion rang her up, NBC New York reports. Berlin woke up and managed to pick up the phone, and luckily for her the student manning the "computer-assisted telephone interviewing terminal" noticed something was wrong.
Bloomberg Compares Smoking To Jumping Off A Bridge
Mayor Bloomberg held a press conference to announce and further clarify new proposed legislation that would require residential buildings to adopt written policies on whether smoking is permitted or prohibited. “This does not prohibit anything,” Bloomberg said. “It just gives people the right to know before they sign a lease, and it seems to be very popular.” He insisted that he wasn't trying to outlaw smoking, but he couldn't help putting it in a certain context: “If you really intellectually start thinking about it, we protect people from hurting themselves, if they're trying to jump off a bridge we restrain them,” Bloomberg said. “Should you really do it with smoking? We’re not going to do it with smoking, but we—this is purely an informational thing.”
Now Bloomberg Doesn't Want You Smoking In Your Own Apartment
Mayor Bloomberg's successful campaign to turn smokers into animals is taking aim at your apartment today: Bloomberg is expected to announce legislation that would require residential buildings to adopt written policies on whether smoking is permitted or prohibited—likely greatly increasing the amount of non-smoking buildings in the city. "We think that people ought to know whether they might be exposed to second-hand smoke in their apartment before they decide whether to rent or buy," Dr. Thomas Farley, commissioner of the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, told the Wall Street Journal.
Will A Bigger, Taller, Rezoned Midtown Be Bloomberg's Legacy?
Mayor Bloomberg has made many plays over his two-and-a-half terms at leaving a lasting physical legacy, but none really worked out. The maybe-too-short One World Trade isn't really his, the Jets stadium never happened (and neither did the Olympics), Atlantic Yards is enriching a few while alienating many of the locals—and don't even get us started on CityTime. So what's a billionaire from Boston to do? Well, according to the Daily News, try and rush through rezoning to rebuild the area around Grand Central taller! Sleeker! With less soul! Yup, views of the Chrysler Building could soon be but a memory.
NRA Not Fond Of "Arrogant Bastard" Bloomberg, "The Epitome Of The Nanny State"
Mayor Bloomberg has made no secret of his lust for stricter gun-control laws—recently in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting, he's come out strongly against the Florida "Stand Your Ground" law, in speeches, editorials and statements: "The NRA’s leaders weren’t interested in public safety. They were interested in promoting a culture where people take the law into their own hands with a gun and face no consequences for it.” Members of the NRA attending their annual conference weren't happy: “Outlawing gun ownership or preventing people from defending themselves isn’t going to solve any problems,” said Tom Seeba, an NRA member from Reno, Nev. “And I think Mayor Bloomberg is an arrogant bastard to try to implement such a strategy.”
Living Wage = Communism In Bloomberg's World View
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's living wage bill has been watered down so much you could film a big-budget post-apocalyptic Kevin Costner movie in it and still have enough water left over to start hydrofracking in Sheep's Meadow. But it's not watered down enough for Mayor Bloomberg, who promises to file legal action to stop it if necessary. It's not because he hates the idea of plebes getting paid enough to live with dignity, it's because he knows his history, and he's seen what happens when the government subsidizes businesses and then makes them treat workers fairly.
Photos: Bloomberg Kisses Miss Piggy And Other Muppet & Mayor Moments
The Muppets aren't just taking Manhattan this time—now they are taking all five boroughs!
Hybrid Helicopter Could Sell For $30 Million, And Bloomberg Really Wants One
Forty fabulously wealthy individuals are on the waitlist to buy the AgustaWestland AW609 Tiltrotor, a wildly expensive hybrid helicopter-plane. Mayor Bloomberg is said to be at the top of the list.
Video: Mayor Bloomberg Makes The Muppets NYC's Family Ambassador
Mayor Bloomberg reflected on his reflection and announced that the Muppets are the official NYC Family Ambassadors, to encourage family travel to the Big Apple (Miss Piggy gives shopping tips! The Swedish Chef has dining advice!). The Mayor, who was there in person (and not his Bluppet!), bragged about starring in Letters to Santa with Miss Piggy in 2008 and said, as he was introducing a certain amphibian, "Having Kermit as a Family Ambassador for New York is pretty exciting and I know it will make other cities—listen carefully—just green with envy." WOCKA WOCKA! Yes, the audience groaned—listen in at around 10:50 in the video below.
NRA Flooding Albany With Cash To Block Bullet Microstamping
With $217,400 in donations since 2003, the National Rifle Association has shelled out more cash in the last decade to legislators in New York than in any other state, reports the Daily News. In what Democrats identify as a transparent agenda opposing Mayor Michael Bloomberg's push to microstamp bullet casings, the NRA pumped more than half of the money into the coffers of Republicans senators following a failed bill in 2010.
Report: AG Schneiderman Investigating NYPD Stop-And-Frisks
New York's Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is considering whether to release a report on the NYPD's stop-and-frisk practices. A source at Schneiderman's office tells the Daily News that there is a "working group" that is reviewing public data, including the racial breakdown of those who are stopped. Documents obtained by the paper also show that Schneiderman has met twice in the last several months with his staff to discuss stop-and-frisk. "They're still very early in the process," the source said.
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