Author Archives: admin
On the state of our rebuilding, briefly.
Even as the past week has seen some trechant commentary that seems to be a harbinger of a change in public discourse over the continued dissappointment that is the redevelopment of the WTC site, it also has an air of resignation — the last gasp of an angry but fatigued opposition that will now pass […]
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Let’s not get bogged down with details.
Only pennies a day from each household in New Jersey to provide temporary housing for 22 men? That’s a good deal. The same amount for working families that can’t find affordable housing? That’s socialism. Fortunately, we got promises of both this week, to assuage our redness and blueness. As is apropos to the metaphoric interpretation […]
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And occassionally, I like something.
With no apparent fanfare, an impressive new mixed-use facility has opened on West 37th Street. Modestly named 37 Arts, it houses three Off-Broadway theaters (ranging from 290-499 seats) and, upstairs, is the home to the Baryshnikov Dance Foundation, which has both offices and studio space. I noticed the construction sometime last year because it happens […]
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That’s the Way the Money Goes.
The LMDC issued a draft report for comment last week, putatively an outline of how the remaining $735 million in Community Development Block Grants will be disbursed. With over $4 billion in requests remaining, the majority of requests will go unfunded. The document does not detail if the $4 billion figure represents all requests, only […]
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White Elephant Roundup.
Keeping track of all the schemes regional leaders dream up to fritter away our proverbial hard-earned can be a damn exhausting endeavor. What with the beautiful weather, who wants to give up their weekend trolling the internets for the skinny? Not you, and not really me either. But I made my bed, so now I […]
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“All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary.”
“Interesting” information is coming out of the current spate of cases against protestors from the Republican National Convention — if by “interesting”, one means perjury, a term the Times assiduously avoids. It’s an odd, postmodern read because it seems like the script to every over-baked Norman Jewison film, until you realize that there will be […]
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Enormous Changes at the Last Minute.
After glossing over the promotion of Max Bond in the press release regarding the appointment of Gretchen Dykstra to chair the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, The New York Times made up for lost time, having sussed out from the mice type that the Performing Arts facility is being left out of the only announced […]
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Solomon Bellows, 1915 — 2005.
At the corner he paused to watch the work of the wrecking crew. The great metal ball swung at the walls, passed easily through brick, and entered the rooms, the lazy weight browsing on kitchens and parlors. Everything it touched wavered and burst, spilled down. There rose a white tranquil cloud of plaster dust. The […]
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This is what happens when your mayor claims to be a ‘non-politician’.
There’s not a whole lot more to be said about this that can’t be found elsewhere. But the Times gets a little dodgy and flashes a moment of Rampe-lovin’ with this quote: “Goldman’s decision is tantamount to a vote of no confidence in a project that has been viewed as a critical symbol of downtown […]
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Wednesday Lore: The Best Thing Ever.