With less than six months to go until the primaries, the New York Observer and the 92nd Street Y have teamed up to host an evening of discussion with all of the major mayoral candidates. The event starts in one hour and, if you can’t make it to the 92nd Street Y to see it in person, you can watch live online right here. Read More
Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous
There’s a battle brewing over Gracie Mansion. Mayor Michael Bloomberg doesn’t live there and he doesn’t think anyone else should either.
“The mayor should not live there,” Mayor Bloomberg flatly told The Times. Mayors should sleep on their own dimes, just as he, and all other city employees do, the mayor, who has many many more dimes than most people, explained. Read More
Through most of the 1990s and 2000s, nonprofits could count on low-cost financing issued through the state’s industrial development agencies to develop buildings, facilities and other infrastructure and construction projects. The bonds didn’t expose the state to any credit risk; rather the vehicle allowed lenders to avoid being taxed on the proceeds in the investment, which in turn incentivized them to accept lower interest rates on the debt. But in 2007, the State Legislature failed to renew the vehicle, cutting off NFPs from an important pipeline of funds. Now, in December, the city’s Economic Development Corporation is planning to roll out a new financing vehicle that will allow lenders to issue low-interest rate tax-free debt to NFPs. The city estimates that at least $700 million worth of projects that had been backlogged could now have access to funds. The Commercial Observer spoke with Steven Polivy, an attorney with law firm Akerman Senterfitt LLP about the upcoming vehicle as well as the impasse that has prevented the IDAs from providing tax free financing in recent years. Mr. Polivy specializes in arranging real estate financing and development transactions that utilize government incentive and financing programs.
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Former City Comptroller Bill Thompson told The Politicker this morning that he expects to make some announcements regarding his 2013 mayoral bid “in the next day or two.”
Thompson made a public appearance at the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, sitting on the dais with other elected officials, but leaving before Read More
The city’s Lobbying Commission is meeting tonight at 6PM at 22 Reade Street, according to a reader who received
The Gustavo Rivera campaign is expected to blanket the homes of Bronx voters with robo-calls from some of his more prominent supporters over the next 36 hours or so.
Among the star-studded line-up getting on the horn in Rivera’s bid to oust Pedro Espada: Thompson, Rev. Al Sharpton, former borough president Freddy Ferrer, city council Read More
Outside New York’s Municipal Building on Wednesday, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio stood at the podium–backed by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, and former comptroller Bill Thompson–to dismiss the notion of nonpartisan elections.
The charter review commission–assembled by Mayor Bloomberg to fulfill a 2008 promise he made to the City Read More
Here’s what it’s like to try to report at an event for a gubernatorial candidate who has not publicly said he’s gubernatorial candidate, and yet is acting gubernatorial.
Adam Clayton Powell IV’s congressional campaign will soon be hiring Jaime Estades, a Democratic operative who most recently worked on Bill Thompson’s mayoral campaign, and got his start helping elect David Dinkins as mayor.
Estades will be the “campaign coordinator,” Powell told me.
Estades first day is on the job is Monday.
On Saturday, Read More
Michael Bloomberg and Bill Thompson seemed to enjoy running into each other last night at the 100 Black Men, Inc. annual gala.
