General Growth Properties reportedly has until Friday to reach an agreement regarding $900 million in debt, casting further doubt on the firm’s plans to redevelop the South Street Seaport and, to a lesser extent, its plans to take part in a $700 million mixed-use development in East Harlem.
“I guess the entire community is Read More
In order for his proposal to extend term limits to become law, Michael Bloomberg needs the support of 26 members of the City Council. At the moment, only 14 members are on record saying they will vote in favor of the bill. Five of the undecideds—Alan Gerson, Jessica Lappin, James Oddo, Helen Sears, and Peter Read More
CUNY leadership and two members of the City Council today called on the Bloomberg administration to pony up more money to demolish and redevelop Fiterman Hall, one of two remaining buildings awaiting deconstruction after being damaged by the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The comments came at a hearing held by Councilmen Read More
Perhaps legislators all received new gavels for the holidays, as there seems to be a whole bunch of hearings in the next few days relevant to economic development.
A list for those that like sitting in the uncomfortable chairs of City Hall and elsewhere:
Jan. 3 – Assemblyman Richard Brodsky holds Read More
Here’s City Councilman Alan Gerson, borrowing some talking points from a protester during a rally on the City Hall steps this afternoon about improving legal resources for senior citizens.
Councilman Alan Gerson of Lower Manhattan was among a handful of lawmakers absent when the City Council voted on whether to co-name four blocks of Gates Avenue after the black nationalist activist Sonny Carson.
I called Gerson's office to ask how he would have voted.
No, according to an aide. And to Read More
Earlier today, Christine Quinn delivered her response to Mike Bloomberg’s proposed budget. Quinn’s proposal is predictably generous in ways that will please her 50-member constituency on the council — $261 million for renter rebates, for example, and $15 million for library funding — but is, in other ways, deliberately restrained.
In all, Quinn’s budget proposal Read More
New York University announced on Wednesday that it will pursue construction of a new $110 million co-generation power plant under Mercer Street, between West 3rd and 4th streets. The construction will last around two years.
“The decision comes after months of conversation and negotiations between NYU and members of the local community, including Councilman Alan Read More
In the paper this week, I wrote about anunusual, private memo from a lobbyist that details the way to build a racial coalition on the CIty Counil around a single, contentious issue.
Richard Lipsky, a lobbyist for the Neighborhood Retail Alliance, is trying to organize a “diverse umbrella coalition” of Council members Read More
In the random-but-noteworthy category, this, from Choire Sicha.
In this week’s New Yorker, Alan Gerson—SoHo, Tribeca, Wall Street, Chinatown, et al—gave Ben McGrath a tour of the street vendors of downtown Manhattan. At one point in the story, Gerson took a business card from an artist and made the following comment about the Read More
