Do you hear that? Quiet. Well, not really. There’s still plenty of complaining and veiled threats, the usual din of a New York morning. But it feels different here. Aside from the unseasonable heat, what makes today special? Well, when you talk, or just think, about how you live in a town that’s different, a place where great men have accomplished great things, where your worth is measured directly by gumption and sweat (and if you believe all that, we’ve got this great bridge for sale), a place unlike Balitmore, or Charlotte, or Seattle, or just about anywhere, you are, for the day, correct. We will not be pimping ourselves for some rich asshole who wants a sports stadium to line his pockets and ego at your (and my) expense.
Joe Bruno and Sheldon Silver got together and demonstrated the just how much this state is still run like a machine hall, by turning their nose up at Bloomberg’s plan by ordering their aides de camp to abstain on the vote at the Public Authorities Control Board, effectively stopping the Hudson Yards project in its tracks (the obviously metaphors are preferred around here). See, Bruno and Silver don’t actually do anything, they just whisper commands and others do the leg work (unless it’s rent stabilization, and then Joe Bruno starts looking like Kruschev at the UN). Silver make a big noise about stalled development downtown, Bruno, who was previously just doing his usual bit and demanding a dollar north for every dollar south Shelly was angling for, took the high road, making the very reasonable request that the vote be contingent on the IOC (a board whose arrogance makes state politics looking like a hippie love-in) actually awarding us the Games.
The big losers in this current turn are Dan Doctoroff and Curious George. Doctoroff, if the press of the past four years are to be trusted, will spiral down into a depressive funk, forgetting that there his is still in charge of several other large, exploitative interventions displacing small businesses and profiting his rich friends. They better schedule an intervention, stat. Curious George managed to lose much more, his national office dreams pretty much sailed down the Hudson, as it was pretty effectively proved that no matter stern and authoritative he’s tried to be on several points over the past month, he is as ineffectual as we’ve ever thought. Somewhere, Andrew Cuomo is gleeful — but because it’s Cuomo, also uncontrollably angry — that he was proved right.
It’s well too familiar territory to list my reasons for opposing the stadium (and I presume they are also obvious and correct), but as a matter of ‘what now’, it’s worth nothing that Silver’s no vote is a potential wedge for much of the continued efforts on the West Side, since his stated opposition was pretty much a letter-perfect read of the RPA’s analysis: rapid development on the West Side would unduly hinder redevelopment downtown. The expansion of Javits has near-universal support (which means it isn’t getting done, a fatted calf wherein everyone tries appends a completely hopeless side project — say, a stadium — as a condition of execution), but other plan elements may still require over support from Silver.
Given that it’s easy to play populist when a opposing a stadium, it seems that he can’t take too hard a line, and continued friction may result in revisions to the plan that would be welcome. Given that the only concrete element to any of the plans for rebuilding downtown or on the West Side was the stadium, and now that it looks pretty conclusively dead, it will be real interesting if any, you know, vision will result from this. The West Side is still a tremendous opportunity, and downtown is still a disaster area. If Mike-Mike stops pouting, he can pretty much bury the entire Democratic primary slate, who were united only on this point, by rising from this failure to build a comprehensible plan for these two trouble areas. You always claimed you weren’t a politician Mike. Now is your chance to demonstrate that, and maybe even do some good for the people of the city. That would be truly un-politico like.
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Leavin’ on a jet plane; don’t know when I’ll be back again.
Do you hear that? Quiet. Well, not really. There’s still plenty of complaining and veiled threats, the usual din of a New York morning. But it feels different here. Aside from the unseasonable heat, what makes today special? Well, when you talk, or just think, about how you live in a town that’s different, a place where great men have accomplished great things, where your worth is measured directly by gumption and sweat (and if you believe all that, we’ve got this great bridge for sale), a place unlike Balitmore, or Charlotte, or Seattle, or just about anywhere, you are, for the day, correct. We will not be pimping ourselves for some rich asshole who wants a sports stadium to line his pockets and ego at your (and my) expense.
Joe Bruno and Sheldon Silver got together and demonstrated the just how much this state is still run like a machine hall, by turning their nose up at Bloomberg’s plan by ordering their aides de camp to abstain on the vote at the Public Authorities Control Board, effectively stopping the Hudson Yards project in its tracks (the obviously metaphors are preferred around here). See, Bruno and Silver don’t actually do anything, they just whisper commands and others do the leg work (unless it’s rent stabilization, and then Joe Bruno starts looking like Kruschev at the UN). Silver make a big noise about stalled development downtown, Bruno, who was previously just doing his usual bit and demanding a dollar north for every dollar south Shelly was angling for, took the high road, making the very reasonable request that the vote be contingent on the IOC (a board whose arrogance makes state politics looking like a hippie love-in) actually awarding us the Games. The big losers in this current turn are Dan Doctoroff and Curious George. Doctoroff, if the press of the past four years are to be trusted, will spiral down into a depressive funk, forgetting that there his is still in charge of several other large, exploitative interventions displacing small businesses and profiting his rich friends. They better schedule an intervention, stat. Curious George managed to lose much more, his national office dreams pretty much sailed down the Hudson, as it was pretty effectively proved that no matter stern and authoritative he’s tried to be on several points over the past month, he is as ineffectual as we’ve ever thought. Somewhere, Andrew Cuomo is gleeful — but because it’s Cuomo, also uncontrollably angry — that he was proved right. It’s well too familiar territory to list my reasons for opposing the stadium (and I presume they are also obvious and correct), but as a matter of ‘what now’, it’s worth nothing that Silver’s no vote is a potential wedge for much of the continued efforts on the West Side, since his stated opposition was pretty much a letter-perfect read of the RPA’s analysis: rapid development on the West Side would unduly hinder redevelopment downtown. The expansion of Javits has near-universal support (which means it isn’t getting done, a fatted calf wherein everyone tries appends a completely hopeless side project — say, a stadium — as a condition of execution), but other plan elements may still require over support from Silver. Given that it’s easy to play populist when a opposing a stadium, it seems that he can’t take too hard a line, and continued friction may result in revisions to the plan that would be welcome. Given that the only concrete element to any of the plans for rebuilding downtown or on the West Side was the stadium, and now that it looks pretty conclusively dead, it will be real interesting if any, you know, vision will result from this. The West Side is still a tremendous opportunity, and downtown is still a disaster area. If Mike-Mike stops pouting, he can pretty much bury the entire Democratic primary slate, who were united only on this point, by rising from this failure to build a comprehensible plan for these two trouble areas. You always claimed you weren’t a politician Mike. Now is your chance to demonstrate that, and maybe even do some good for the people of the city. That would be truly un-politico like.