Friday: Insurers’ Love is Like a Hurricane

Fri, 23 Jun 2006 09:45:00 -0400

Insurers like Allstate are reducing their vulnerability to future hurricanes by denying coverage to 80-year-old Brooklyn residents--plus 30,000 other homeowners in the state's coastal counties. Maybe it's because all those hurricanes always hit New York. Or is it because the industry enjoyed a record $43 billion profit last year? Either way, be sure to check your "loss assessment coverage". (AP, via Newsday)

The Empire State Development Corp. reveals that the $850-million transformation of the Farley Post Office into Moynihan Station will begin in autumn--and be completed by 2012. That is, of course, unless Madison Square Garden and Penn Station come into the mix, in which case we can expect $7 billion-worth--and years and years--of fun. (NY1)

Is the city's "white hot real estate market" bad for art? "The conversation at this point isn't whether or not there's opportunity in New York," the director of Williamsburg's Galapagos says about artists, "but just what other city they should go to." Galapagos executives will meet today with the Department of Cultural Affairs to lobby for government aid. (Crane's)

The New York Sun does not care about struggling artists. The New York Sun cares about Park Avenue. It cares about Park Avenue a lot. (NY Sun)

Will a federal judge care about the 8,000 construction workers, firefighters and police officers who say they were exposed to toxins at ground zero? The city hopes not--or, at least, it hopes that a "piece of cold war legislation" will keep it safely immune from such complaints. (The New York Times)

- Max Abelson

Observer » Friday: Insurers’ Love is Like a Hurricane

Friday: Insurers’ Love is Like a Hurricane