By Staff 5/24/06 5:00pm

McCain Response

Well, today’s McCain story has generated quite a lot of letter writing from addresses we usually don’t see here at the li’l old Observer. Most of the e-mails coming in are from conservatives west of the Hudson River, and they argue that McCain’s moderate stance on domestic issues does not represent their values. Many Read More

By Staff 3/30/06 4:21pm

Many Weeks of Excitement to Come!

We know guessing when the Ground Zero negotiations will end is a game no one wins, but we couldn’t help noticing the time frame Port Authority Chairman Anthony Coscia mentioned in a press huddle after his meeting today:

“We are very optimistic that in the ensuing weeks that we are going to come to Read More

By Staff 3/09/06 10:47am

The Jersey Connection

David Lombino has a fascinating piece on how another tunnel under the Hudson River is fitting into negotiations about who controls Ground Zero. It involves too much horse-trading to go into here, but, unlike most Sun articles, it is completely free on the Web.

-Matthew Schuerman

By Staff 9/28/05 1:53pm

High Art


In April 2004, gallery owner Barbara Gladstone signed a contract at Richard Meier’s latest residential project, 165 Charles Street, as reported a few months later by New York magazine. Well, the deal finally closed earlier this month for $4.75 million, according to deed transfer records. (Ms. Gladstone is in Read More

By Staff 9/26/05 4:23pm

Greenwich Village ‘Down-Zoned’

Greenwich Village dwellers and preservationists won a battle today when the City Planning Commission voted to limit the height and scale of new developments in the far West Village, a haven of luxury real-estate speculation since the infamous Perry Street celebridorm by Richard Meier, overexposed both literally and figuratively, went up along the Hudson River. Read More

By Staff 7/11/05 1:41pm

Wild, Wild West

Today, the Department of City Planning is meeting to review a proposal to rezone the Far West Village, from roughly west of Greenwich and Washington streets to the Hudson River, between 14th and Morton Streets. The D.C.P. will be considering a down-zoning, which would decrease the bulk and maximum height of new buildings in the Read More

By Rich Prior 7/12/04 12:00am

Cry Me a River: My Triathlon Dream Faces Murky Hudson

“Hey, you’re that guy!” I turned and saw that the actor David Duchovny was talking to me. It was 5:30 in the morning. We were in line to get body-marked at the 2004 New York City Triathlon.

“You’re the reason I’m doing this,” Mr. Duchovny said. “I registered after reading your article. I grew Read More

By Moira Hodgson 9/29/03 12:00am

Dining out with Moira Hodgson

Black Diamond or Fungus?

Soho’s Ode to the Truffle”What exactly is a truffle?” asked my teenage son dubiously. We were having dinner in a restaurant on Spring Street that offers over a dozen dishes made with truffles.

The menu answered his question: “It is the black diamond of Provence. It’s elegant, refined, fragrant and Read More

By Hilton Kramer 9/15/03 12:00am

Monster Minimalism: Dia Beacon Museum A Vast, Ascetic Folly

Almost four decades have passed since an exhibition called Primary Structures (1966) was organized at the Jewish Museum in New York. For many of the people who saw it, Primary Structures was their first encounter with what was soon to be called Minimalism-an art so radically denuded of embellishment, complexity or any obvious visual appeal Read More