After his $500,000 donation to NY State Republicans was revealed, Mayor Bloomberg explained why he did it to reporters while attending a Mayors Against Illegal Guns conference, "I've said repeatedly, I will help those who help us. They have stood up for the city a number of times — when we needed to have a voice in Albany and we didn't have that voice from the Assembly or from the governor, whether it was the......

The City Council voted 40-3 to end the tax breaks Madison Square Garden has enjoyed since 1982. It's estimated that the city has lost almost $300 million in potential revenue in subsidies to the "World's Most Famous Arena." Although the City Council wants the tax breaks to end (our favorite quote is from Councilman Lew Fidler: "I have spent my entire life as as Knicks fan, and I doubt if there's anyone who loves the......

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......

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......

Mayor Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Quinn urged the State Assembly to pass a bill authorizing the marine transfer station at the Gansevoort Pier. The MTS, part of the city's Solid Waste Management Plan, would handle recyclable paper, metal, glass and plastic and would help to ease garbage truck traffic. Bloomberg said there would be "a disaster" if the plan doesn't pass. Assembly members whose districts are affected by the plan, such as Richard Gottfried,......

Our neighbors to the west broke ground today on a new stadium for the Giants and Jets at the Meadowlands. Rather, officials officially broke ground today, since it's obvious to anyone that's been to the Meadowlands that construction on the new two-team stadium has already started. The $1.3 billion stadium will be jointly owned by the two teams and make both feel at home, unlike Giants Stadium, which irritates the Jets and their fans.......

Assembly Leader Sheldon Silver is putting his mark on the Mayor's congestion pricing plan by not doing anything. Today he said on the radio, "It's unlikely we [the Legislature] can take action within the next week," and then most of Albany has a recess starting June 21. Silver did suggest that the Assembly could discuss the matter when they come back in August,which is when a plan would need to be approved so the city......

The city's Far West Side dreams are at stake as the MTA will auction off the buildings rights to the West Side railyards. The NY Times takes a broad look the 26-acre swath of land where Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff says the Bloomberg administration wants to create the "21st century Rockefeller Center." Well, a Rockefeller Center with many huge buildings, as the article's lede calls the lots "where the Bloomberg administration envisions the equivalent......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: unstable scaffolding at Manhattan's 265 West 37th St., a police car multi-vehicle accident at Thomas S. Boyland St. and Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, and a suspicious package at East 161st St. and Grand Concourse in the Bronx. How could the McGreevey saga get any more strange? Maybe if Jim McGreevey decided to join the priesthood. He told WNBC that he is entering a seminary to become an Episcopal priest.......

90-floor hotel at the Javits Center? That'll be great for the West Side Stadium - oh, wait Huh: Kean University hires former NJ Governor James McGreevey to teach ethics, law and leadership - we sort of understand it because they're just paying him $17,500, but STILL He's ready: Suspected sexual attacker Peter Braunstein was found mentally fit to stand trial Former Montessori school headmistress Lina Sinha's 14 year sentence for seducing a student is......

The hard-hitting polemical film, Brooklyn Matters, lucidly articulates and amplifies the movement to stop Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards plan. Directed and produced by Isabel Hill, the film portrays the AY project as an outrageous scam to be perpetrated upon hoodwinked Brooklynites. Numerous interviews with critical residents, planners, critics, and elected officials portray a scenario in which a cynical developer and corrupt State agencies have hired gullible community allies and a star architect to conceal......

It’s another defining week for the Atlantic Yards. On Wednesday, the 8 million square-foot project faces one of its last hurdles: approval by the Public Authorities Control Board, the state oversight body that monitors Albany’s fiscal commitments to projects like the Yards. PACB votes have derailed large-scale projects before, most notably last year when Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver and Joseph Bruno, the Senate majority leader, killed the West Side Stadium plan. Of course, it’s no......

The Cablevision Dolans are planning to sink their claws into another Manhattan space: The Beacon Theatre. A long-term lease has been negotiated between the theater's owner and MSG Entertainment - one that has MSG paying much more than the current tenant, which may mean the Beacon's ticket prices would go up even more. It's expected that MSG would renovate the theater as well as "beef up the Beacon's current roster of concerts with corporate events......

Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan is probably turning in his grave right now. Plans for the Moynihan Station have been "derailed" as plans to discuss it have been postponed. Officials had been hoping that the Public Authorities Control Board would approve the project this year, so it would happen under Governor Pataki's term. But with opposition to and many questions surrounding the project, the NY Times reports "the Pataki administration took the proposal off the table......

Both the Observer and the NY Sun look at the slow development process for the Moynihan Station, a project long discussed but stuck in development hell. We think the Observer's sub-headline says it all: "Silver Stops Projects, And There’s Not Much Putzy Governor Can Do; Gargano in Full Gear; Snarled by Property Shuffle With Vornado and Related." To translate: Assembly Leader Sheldon Silver is delaying the project, and since Governor Pataki is a lame duck,......

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. We've been waiting for the Farley Post Office to be transformed into a grand entryway to the City in the manner of the Old Penn Station for some......

Check it out! The Mayor Bloomberg, hoping to make Hudson Yards lemonade out of failed Jets Stadium lemons, along with West Side Stadium opponent City Council Speaker Christine Quinn have offered the MTA $500 million for the West Side Railyards. The two officials sent the MTA an "unexpected" offer letter, which has the city paying $300 million for the "Western Rail Yard" (where the Jets Stadium would have been) and $200 million for the Eastern......

People are wondering why City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is so quiet about the Atlantic Yards project. The Observer points out that Quinn was instrumental in leading City Hall opposition to the West Side Stadium, with the suggestion being that Quinn is thinking about running for Mayor and will need to keep certain people happy. Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn's Daniel Goldstein tells the Observer, "It would not be a principled position for her to support......

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......

State Assembly members met with various parties involved with the World Trade Center rebuilding yesterday to discuss development progress. Or, rather, the lack of progress. Assemblyman Richard Brodsky even said, "I wouldn't do any more groundbreaking right now" as a zing to all the ceremonies, photo ops and public puffery but little actual work getting done. And what's more, WTC leaseholder and developer Larry Silverstein says that insurance companies may not pay out all of......

This is a dis on a grand scale (to NYC tourism, at least). Or it's a blessing in disguise. The U.S. Olympic Committee is not visiting New York City when it visits potential cities for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Cities the USOC is visiting: Houston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. One could say that the USOC already visited NYC before it selected it to be the 2012 US Olympic city bid, but, hey,......

In an appeal to his supporters, the Mayor took them to lunch at the Four Seasons restaurant to give them some cards. But not just any ol' cards - wallet-sized, plastic covered cards - "The New York City Card '06" - that list the city's (in the Mayor's eyes) top five initiatives. Sort of like mission statements that marketing heads get, the list is what Bloomberg hopes will be a filter for donors to think......

It's hard to believe that another year is coming to a close (we're going to be three next February!) and Gothamist can barely remember what happened last week, let alone 11 months ago. But we've come up with a list of some things that do rise to the top: - Crimes made for the media: Everyone knows that a crime can sell papers as well as scare and outrage people...this year, they included the......

Since the only thing happening in the Mayor's office is fussing over the inauguration party (let's hope a civilian isn't injured by the scrum of reporters this year!) and possibly needing to spin the "thuggish" remarks from last week's transit strike, all eyes are on the City Council which is about to select a new Speaker. The NY Times says that the two frontrunners are Bill DeBlasio and Christine Quinn, of Brooklyn and Manhattan respectively.......

Dunh dunh DUNH: Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Pataki are doing their Ground Zero development dance, with Bloomberg naming four people onto the LMDC board, including Dan "NYC 2012/West Side Stadium" Doctoroff, and then Pataki named two new people of his own: His economic adviser Charles Gargano and former FBI-bigwig James Kallstrom. The Post says the Gargano and Doctoroff have clashed before, so we can only look forward to some well-planted leaks about the other guy......

So this had already been kinda mentioned, but in case you were worried what Bloomberg and Dan Doctoroff were going to focus on next now that the West Side Stadium and the Olympics are dead (and assuming Blooms wins the election) the Daily News has the answer for you: Governors Island. Doctoroff has told the News that development proposals for the 172 acre Island, separated from Brooklyn by the buttermilk channel (you learn something new......

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......

- The new plaza at 55 Water Street will host 12 public events a year - The two men found guilty of killing a college student in Brooklyn were sentenced to 25 years to life - Gawker breaks down the odds on who will be Mediabistro's new editor - Madonna met with Hunter students yesterday! Everything going on on the Upper East Side, apparently - The Jets get to sue Cablevision over the whole West......

We're still reading the NY Times story about Mayor Bloomberg's businessman's approach to running the city, but it seems pretty positive. Sure, he's had politically polarising problems with the West Side Stadium and the NYC 2012 bid, but the article makes him out to be a pretty reasonable guy, if you call things like "appointing his commissioners based on expertise and giving them nearly free rein to determine policy regardless of political consequences" reasonable. While......

Mayor Bloomberg wants the city to play a "bigger role in rebuilding at Ground Zero". Oh, so a bigger role than showing up for photo ops and nodding along with whatever Governor Pataki says? Of course this announcement si totally political: By not really taking an active role in Ground Zero (aside from wanting the Freedom Tower to be safer, really), the Mayor has avoided criticism that he's helped the project go to the toilet.......