Ending months of speculation, Mayor Michael Bloomberg confirmed he will not run for president in the 2008 election. And he did it with an op-ed in the NY Times, titled, "I'm Not Running for President, but..." more ›

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. more ›

Two bills are facing off in the City Council these days, pitting the rights of landlords against the rights of tenants. Both seek to end legal harassment of one group against the other. In one corner, we have the bill introduced by Council members Daniel Garodnick and Melissa Mark-Viverito. It seeks to curb harassment of tenants by landlords who withhold services (e.g. heat, disrepair) by allowing them to file restraining orders against their landlords. The current system requires tenants to head to housing court. In the other corner, we have a bill introduced by Council members Leroy Comrie and Thomas White Jr. that would protect landlords from legal harassment from tenants. They fear that frivolous lawsuits could bankrupt small-scale property owners. more ›

Mayor Bloomberg has made ridding the city of illegal guns one of his administration's major issues (it's also a big part of his potential national platform). Last year, he, on behalf of NYC, filed two federal lawsuits against out-of-state gun dealers, after sting operations revealed that the dealers were apparently selling guns illegally. While some dealers have settled, others are fighting back, countersuing the city. The Bloomberg administration's sting operations involved two undercovers going to... more ›

Mayor Bloomberg returned from Sun Valley's media mogul conference to stump for his congestion pricing program at three churches yesterday. And today he's headed to Albany, as the congestion pricing program will be discussed by the Legislature. The Bloomberg administration has pointed out that the federal Department of Transportation is pretty willing to give $537 million in funding to NYC if the concept of congestion pricing is passed by Albany lawmakers, but the deadline for that money is today. more ›

This morning, Governor Eliot Spitzer is announcing the sale of the West Side Railyards. The NY Times reports that the state and MTA will "formally begin soliciting bids for the development rights." Boy, does this bring us back to 2005. Of course, developers will need a boatload of patience and a boatload of money - the land was appraised last September to be worth $1.5 billion and it's estimated to cost $1 billion to simply build a platform over the railyards. more ›

If you think 911 is a joke, things may improve by 2009 if everything goes as planned. The Bloomberg Administration has unveiled a $1.5 billion plan to improve the emergency call system with a backup center and consolidation of 911 operators and dispatchers in two call centers. The city has previously attempted to overhaul the 911 system but delays and budget problems scuttled the plans. The current system has had its problems, shutting down four times in 1999 (including one 67 minute span) and for two hours in parts of Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island in 2004. more ›

Light and Oil on Water by mdpNY. more ›

Yesterday, it was announced that Tishman Speyer's $5.4 billion bid for Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village was successful, making it the largest real estate deal in history. But what's interesting is that the second bid from Apollo was $5.33 billion. We wonder if Apollo executives are "What if"-ing right now. The bid organized by tenants to preserve middle-class housing was $4.5-4.9 billion - well behind the other bids - and City Councilman Daniel Garodnick, Peter Cooper resident, who worked on the tenants' bid said, “Eventually, I think what you will see is a market-rate, gated community, which is what MetLife was pitching to all the potential bidders.” more ›

- Banning gifts to lobbyists more ›

While it seems unlikely a bill like this would ever get passed, but just the idea that the City Hall is considering some sort of toll for drivers to enter the city and create more congestion makes us excited. The NY Times looks at how various groups are looking at using congestion pricing in NYC to encourage people to use mass transit and carpools, versus driving their cars in and thereby promoting traffic, increasing cancer-causing agents, and slowing down buses. The Partnership for New York City, which is run by city business leaders, has been investigating the proposition for many months, and the ideas are still in the works (some highways would be free - FDR, West Side Highway - but driving in some parts of the city would be less expensive than others...and it's unclear whether city driver would have to pay a flat fee for keeping a car in a the city or get a discount versus commercial drivers) - read the article, it's all very fascinating stuff. This quote from Ernert Tollerson of the Partnership says it all:

"Is there an opportunity to create a congestion-relief zone that would help this global city? This is a city that wants to add tens of thousands of jobs, but we can't continue to build streets and roads. For the long-term growth of the city, we need demand-management tools."

">NY1/Newsday poll he's doing very, very well. Not only does the poll have Bloomie trouncing Ferrer by a 32-point margin (along with having an approval rating of 67%) but it even has him kicking ass in hypothetical match-ups against Giuliani, Dinkins, Koch and Commissioner Ray Kelly. All of this pro-Bloomberg news apparently has both campaigns worried. The Bloomberg camp is worried nobody will vote assuming his win assured, while the Ferrer camp is worried that nobody will vote assuming his loss is assured. more ›

Oh, boo hoo. The Bloomberg administration is asking the courts to let the administration be in charge of marketing deals, instead of putting any possible sponsorships through the Franchise and Concession Review Committee. City Comptroller William Thomspon had been critical of the city's deal with Snapple and a later court ruling said that any sponsorships would need to be reviewed, though the Snapple deal could stand. Newsday reports that a lawyer for the Bloomberg administration says that "subjecting the city to such 'cumbersome administrative proceedings' as review by the franchise committee could possibly lessen the economic benefits of such deals in the future." That's hilarious, because cumbersome administrative proceedings is what this country was built on! City Comptroller Thompson is still arguing that these kinds of deals need public process. Translation: Bloomberg, don't think all your friends can get sweetheart deals. more ›

Mayor Bloomberg received the endorsement of a Democratic club in the Bronx, home of frontrunning Democratic mayoral hopeful Fernando Ferrer. The Northwest Bronx Democratic Alliance, which had endorsed Ferrer in 2001, threw their support behind Bloomberg, saying Ferrer lacked "fire" this time around. The Bloomberg campaign is thrilled to have the endorsement, even though the Bronx Democratic Alliance is small and fairly new; Ferrer's campaign points out that one of the Mayor's deputy mayors, Carol Robles-Roman, is a leader in the club and may have "delivered" the endorsement. You may remember Robles-Roman from such incidents as "Using sirens and lights on her car in non-emergency situations simply to advance in traffic more easily." more ›

ship the city's garbage via barges, in order to cut sanitation truck traffic, by creating/renovating marine transfer stations in the city. One was in Miller's Upper East Side district, making him primed to fight the Mayor on this. The interesting thing is that many politicians in poorer districts actually supported this trash plan (not to mention the NRDC), because many trash stations are located in their districts. The NY Times reports that many Council members were upset over the vote, with City Councilman Charles Barron of Brooklyn saying, "This is the most embarrassing day I've had since I've been on the Council." more ›

Brooklyn community groups descended on City Hall yesterday, to protest the rezoning of Greenpoint and Williamsburg, and it seems that the City Council is on board, as it "threatened...to scuttle" the Bloomberg plan. The sticking points are that the Bloomberg plan includes a lot of development with a lot of tall buildings, and possibly not enough park space or low income housing. The Bloomberg administration counters that the plan has to be attractive enough for developers to want to develop the "polluted, underused" space. more ›