Tom Allon runs for his birthday (NY1)

We had arrived in the middle of one woman's speech about why Mr. Allon's views on teachers was inspiring. (Mr. Allon had taught English at Stuyvesant High School after graduating from Columbia, after all.)

After the woman had tearfully finished, we approached Mr. Allon. "As someone who has to balance a media and political career, who is your inspiration?"

"Boris Johnson," he said, laughing. And to clarify: "Wait, I'm just kidding!"

Mr. Allon added that his hero certainly wasn't Berlusconi.

"I guess Bloomberg is the only person who comes to mind, but he has a very different kind of media company than I do. I think of myself not just as a newspaper or a magazine publisher, but an educator."

Well, Pulitzer and Hearst made this town, we reminded him. So why even bother with politics when he already had the power of the press?

"I don't want to be in politics," Mr. Allon told us. "I want to be a public servant. I've been a media person for 25 years and I'll probably be a media person after I leave office, but I decided to run after I tried to change the administration standards at my old high school and realized how they weren't going to change, no matter how many articles about the issue I banged out."

With that, we let the perhaps future mayor go back to receiving his birthday wishes and congratulations...mostly, we noticed, from schoolteachers who had come to toast their new champion.

Vacancy. (SpecialKRB/Flickr)

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.

Mayor Bloomberg's most recent declaration has led us to ask ourselves deep, probing questions, like what's more entitled? Living in a free mansion on the East River or being so rich that you turn down the free mansion because you'd rather stay in your own, possibly nicer, mansion on the Upper East Side?

Candidate and former City Comptroller Bill Thompson has taken umbrage at the Mayor's opinion.

“Mayors living in Gracie Mansion are part of the rich tradition and history of New York City," said Mr. Thompson. "Mayor Bloomberg’s remarks fly in the face of former mayors Rudy Giuliani, David Dinkins, Ed Koch and every other former mayor who has lived there."

What's more, 2013 mayoral candidate and media executive Tom Allon told The Wall Street Journal that he not only planned to live in Gracie Mansion if he was elected, but had postponed moving from the Upper West Side to Brooklyn because of the possibility. Cheeky!

Showing considerable political acumen, potential candidates City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer declined to discuss their future living arrangements with The Journal, whose report prompted The Times to ask the mayor about the future of the 1799 home, one of the oldest in the city. (Although we would guess that Mr. Stringer, who has pushed to reduce the number of vacant properties in Manhattan, would be loathe to let Gracie languish).

One person who would like to see the inside of Gracie Mansion, at least for one night? The mayor's girlfriend, Diana Taylor, according to The Journal. He has flatly refused.

But Bloomberg is a man of many mansions, many of them vacant for much of the year. In addition to his 12,500-square foot townhouse in New York, there's his manse in the Hamptons, (known as Ballyshear), a townhouse in Cadogan Square in London and a walled estate in Bermuda where he likes to spend his weekends.

It's too bad that a 2012 presidential run will not be in the cards for Mayor Bloomberg. We'd love to know what he'd have to say about all the freeloaders who have been living in the White House.

kvelsey@observer.com

The New York Press will live on in name, sort of. The arts section of Our Town Downtown will be called New York Press, and nypress.com will be expanded in the fall to aggregate news and content from Manhattan Media's ten titles and other local news sources.

Marissa Maier, previously reported to be Jerry Portwood's replacement at the top of New York Press, will serve as managing editor for Our Town Downtown and Josh Rogers, formerly of Downtown Express, will supervise the re-launch and execution. It will be published by Gerry Gavin, who publishes the other five Manhattan Media weekly papers, with help from a few New York Press sales people.

"Downtown has changed, it's more ripe for a community paper than an alternative paper," Mr. Allon said. (The same demographic shift led to the original launch of Our Town Downtown in 2006. It merged with the New York Press when Manhattan Media bought it in 2007, making this a reverse-merger.)

Our Town Downtown plans to address its new audience with a new focus on real estate and with a special issue commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9/11, a portion of the advertising and sponsor revenue from which will be donated to two 9/11 charities.

"It'll compete with the Voice for hipsters, Downtown Express for community activists, and New York magazine for intelligentsia who care about real estate and their home values," Mr. Allon said.

The president and CEO of the company that publishes City Hall News, Tom Allon, told me Dovere "joins a long line of distinguished journalists who have started their careers at Manhattan Media" including Jim Rutenberg, Andrew Jacobs and James McKinley.

Dovere was, for many, the face of that publication, writing (at length!) about, for example, the Working Families Party and previewing the would-be Senate candidacy of Steve Israel.

But Allon said his outlet is already planning to "expand our coverage of city and state politics" with new initiatives in the coming weeks and months.

Update: Dovere emails his contacts, saying, "We’ve broken news, gained an increasingly large following, and won our fair share of awards. And though I know I’ve personally caused quite a bit of trouble for a number of the people getting this email, I’ve enjoyed working with all of you."

In my interview with Allon, he said he was recusing himself from the endorsement process.

In the endorsement, Our Town noted they interviewed Bloomberg, and said that Bill Thompson “has often been in alignment with the mayor, and there are few major points of difference between the two candidates.”

The paper also endorsed David Yassky for comptroller, who, as Liz Benjamin noted, is renting office space from Manhattan Media.

UPDATE: The paper did run a disclaimer at the bottom of the endorsements disclosing its financial relationships with some candidates. Overall, only one of the four candidates who use Allon’s local ad buying service was endorsed by the paper.

At a press conference outside City Hall just now, at which Thompson criticized what he described as an unseemly coziness between Conflict of Interest Board members and the Bloomberg administration, he was asked why he’s trailing in this category.

He said that most of the publications didn't even try to speak with him.

“We’ve spoken to you, but not many,” Thompson said. “Of the 25, I think we’ve sat down with three.”

“I’m not sure whose publication in which I read this, but there’s a large amount of advertising going on in local newspapers this year, well in excess of any other year. So there’s a lot of money being spent out there.”

I reported that Bloomberg's local ad buyer is Tom Allon, who also publishes the Manhattan Media chain of newspapers. According to the latest campaign finance records, Bloomberg's campaign has spent $545,191 on print ads.

Later, I asked Thompson if he still thought the endorsement of the three major daily newspapers were up for grabs, in light of the fact that they all supported Michael Bloomberg’s effort to extend term limits legislatively.

“I don’t know where they’re going to go in the end,” he said. “They chose a definite--leaning in a direction before the process even began. I mean, back in September, the three major dailies said they were supportive of the mayor being able to run for a third term. I think it doesn’t take a house to fall on you to understand they’re leaning in a direction.”

UPDATE: Bloomberg spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker emailed to say, "It’s unfortunate that Mr. Thompson has chosen to attack and demean more than two dozen of our city’s leading ethnic and weekly newspapers, but perhaps Mr. Thompson has practiced pay to play politics himself for so long that he assumes everyone operates that way."

UPDATE: An interested reader reminds me that Thompson's newspaper endorsements were all for the primary, unlike Bloomberg's which were for the general election. So, the newspaper score is really 25 to 0 in the Bloomberg-Thompson general election, and 4 to 0 in the Thompson-Tony Avella Democratic primary.

Usually, it’s to arrange for him to place ads in weekly and ethnic newspapers throughout the city.

On January 16, a company called Madison Square Partners L. L.C. was founded. It set up shop inside the midtown offices of Manhattan Media, which publishes City Hall News, The Capitol, Our Town, the West Side Spirit, and Avenue Magazine.

Madison Square Partners is a separate venture from the publishing empire Allon oversees. It has also led Allon to recuse himself from the endorsement process at some of his newspapers, he said.

As Allon described it in a series of interviews this week, Madison Square Partners is a company that places ads throughout the city. The result for clients is a cost-effective way to reach a targeted audience, which, in the current media landscape, is becoming increasingly difficult to find.

Currently, Madison Square Partners' main client is Michael Bloomberg’s reelection campaign. According to records at the city Campaign Finance Board, Madison Square Partners has taken in $409,007 this year from clients, with $370,487 coming from Bloomberg’s campaign. That does not represent pure profits. According to Allon, the cost of placing the ad is included in the bill Madison Square Partners sends to its clients.

Ads for Bloomberg's campaign have appeared in local and ethnic newspapers in all five boroughs, thanks to Allon.

(The only other campaign that has used Madison Square Partners is the campaign of David Weprin, who is running for city comptroller. Both campaigns employ consultant Hank Sheinkopf, who said he does not know anything about Madison Square Partners.)

In the interviews, Allon said the work of Manhattan Media and Madison Square Partners is completely separate. He also said that like most publishers, he does not steer coverage of his newspapers.

Allon also said that, for the first time, he will recuse himself from the endorsement process his newspapers will go through with candidates for office. When his editors meet with candidates, Allon said, he will not be in attendance and will not voice his opinion.

He noted that only the weekly papers at Manhattan Media (Our Town, the West Side Spirit and New York Press) make endorsements. The monthly publications (City Hall News and The Capitol) do not.

Well, although he says it ain’t so, last week’s cover story about the health risks facing WTC rescue workers sure does make it seem like Mr. Ortega is at it again.

Compare and contrast: here’s last week’s cover and here’s one that ran on Nov. 28. Kind of similar! Also the articles are about the same thing.

The similarity appears to owe something to the paper’s recent large-scale staff turnover. According to Mr. Ortega, last week’s cover was designed by new art director Chris Sauvé. Mr. Ortega said Mr. Sauvé had not seen the old one—“Frankly,” he added, “I don’t know if I’ve seen it myself.”

The accompanying stories both deal with the same topic, but beyond that, they really couldn’t be any more different: the earlier story, written by reporter Kristen Lombardi and published during the brief tenure of editor David Blum, was all about how exposure to the rubble was giving Ground Zero rescue workers cancer (it was called “Death by Dust”).

Last week’s article, by Graham Rayman—entitled “Clearing the Air About 9/11’s Toxic Dust and Cancer”—argues that research on the topic is murky, and that “even in the best of circumstances, it is extraordinarily difficult to prove that a specific source has caused cancer.”

Mr. Rayman’s article does not refer to the Voice’s earlier story directly, but reads nevertheless like an unequivocal attempt at refuting its claims.

Why would the Voice want to discredit its own reporting—especially considering Ms. Lombardi’s piece was just recently awarded first place in the investigative reporting category for 2006 by the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies?

Thing is, by the time Ms. Lombardi received that award in June, Mr. Ortega had fired her. And so, one wonders whether he farmed out last week’s story to Mr. Rayman as a way of placing distance between his Village Voice and the old one.

Mr. Ortega denied that charge. “There was no conscious effort to ‘tie’ this cover to anything," he wrote in an e-mail. "New editor, new writer, and a new look at an evolving story. Call it weird if you like.”

Mr. Ortega explained that he’d noticed “a lot of reporting in various publications, including the Voice, making claims about what sorts of diseases could be connected to the 9/11 clean-up effort.

“With another anniversary coming up, I asked Graham to take a new look at those claims, and examine the quality of the evidence, not just the numbers of people claiming to be sick."

Mr. Ortega went on: “The piece he wrote does contradict what has been written by other journalists, and what the Voice has written in the past. But that’s the nature of journalism—we’re always gathering new evidence and trying to make sense of what we find.”

New York Press owner Tom Allon, who recently made Mr. Blum editor-in-chief and is apparently eager to start a crosstown newspaper war with the city’s other free weekly, sees it differently: “I’ve never heard of a publication winning first place in a journalism competition for a story they try to debunk six months later. What are they gonna ‘revisit’ next?”

to Afghanistan to fight with the Taliban, he presumably renounced the commercial,

capitalistic

impulses that have contributed to the United States' bad

reputation abroad.

But even before the prison

ship U.S.S. Bataan unloads its

notorious cargo in Cuba and the next step of Mr. Walker's fate is decided, the media is working overtime to determine if his

family will turn to good old-fashioned American commercialism-in the form of a

book or film deal-in an attempt to save Mr. Walker's hide.

Since shortly before the New

Year, the publishing and film grapevines have been humming with speculation

that one or both of Mr. Walker's estranged parents were contemplating such

projects, purportedly to pay for any legal defense of their son that they may

need to mount.

But, so far, there has been nothing in the way of concrete

evidence. A spokeswoman for former Assistant U.S. Attorney James Brosnahan, who

has been representing Mr. Walker and his parents, adamantly denied that any

such deals were in the works. "There have been no efforts by the family to sell

book or film rights," said the spokeswoman, who requested anonymity. She did

confirm, however, that "freelance" writers and producers looking for their help

in making the story into a television movie of the week have approached the

family.

Mr. Brosnahan's spokeswoman added that those offers "are not

being considered" by the Walkers.

David Burgin, editor in chief of the San Francisco Examiner , told The Transom, half in jest, that his

staff "makes 400 calls every day to see if there's a deal and who's signed it."

And one prominent New York book scout, who requested anonymity, said: "We've

definitely heard that the story is circulating, but we haven't seen anything

yet."

It's a sticky, conflict-ridden question, one in which the

apparent meatiness of Mr. Walker's story-rap-loving California boy converts to

Islam, joins the Taliban and ends up being captured after fighting against his

native country in one of the most brutal chapters to date of America's war

against Al Qaeda-cannot be judged on its own merits. Rather, it must be

assessed in the context of the thousands of lives lost at ground zero, the

lives of American servicemen and women that have been risked and lost in

Afghanistan, and the current wave of patriotism that has blanketed the country.

The unanswered questions about whether Mr. Walker will be tried

in a criminal or military court, as well as whether his behavior will be deemed

treasonous or merely criminal, also further complicate the matter. Some

states-including New York and California-use "Son of Sam" laws, named after

serial killer David Berkowitz, to prevent criminals from profiting from their crimes.

But Mr. Walker's case is not so clear-cut.

According to many sources in the tightly wound publishing and

film industries, current sentiment dictates that even if the Walkers broke

their silence, they might have a tough time finding any takers.

When, for instance, I.C.M.

literary agent Esther Newberg was asked if she would consider doing business

with Walker family, she replied: "You're talking to the wrong person. 'Cause I

think it's treason. What he did is treason. And thinking that it's treason doesn't

give me any room to work."

Ms. Newberg said she thought Mr. Walker's story "should be

treated the way the Son of Sam was. You shouldn't profit from murdering and

maiming people. I can't imagine a respectable publisher publishing it. I think

he shouldn't profit in any way.  You can

quote me saying this: He shouldn't make one

thin dime ."

Some publishing executives were a little more circumspect.

"Everything about 9/11 was crashed immediately, but this one aspect wasn't,"

said Terry Guerin, a partner at Gotham Scouting Partners. Mr. Guerin said that

how and when Walker's story makes its way to the shelves is an "ongoing

question," but that he hasn't yet heard anything about a proposal. He guessed

that there's been "an intuitive call that this is an unattractive figure, and

that that's what's prevented a wholesale rush to crash a book about him."

Mr. Guerin added, however, that he's sure it's only a matter of

time before such a project materializes, though not necessarily via Mr.

Walker's family. He said it would depend on what turns Mr. Walker's case takes,

and which writer could be matched to the story.

"I couldn't say without seeing a proposal," said Simon &

Schuster head David Rosenthal. Mr. Rosenthal added that he'd "heard the rumors"

about a John Walker book proposal, but had yet to see anything.

Mr. Rosenthal compared the abstract idea of the book to the

manifesto circulated by Unabomber Ted Kaczynski. "I remember when Kaczynski was

trying to sell his book-I saw that, everyone did. I thought it was boring."

The man who didn't think Mr. Kaczynski's story was boring was

Beau Friedlander, founder of Context Books. His imprint was set to publish Mr.

Kaczynski's manifesto before pulling the plug at the last minute because of

"dire, irreconcilable differences of opinion" with the jailed author. Later,

Context published a book by Rhoda Berenson, mother of Lori Berenson, an

American who is still jailed for aiding leftist rebels in Peru.

But though Mr. Friedlander's publishing history has gotten him

labeled a "leftist and reactionary," he said that he wouldn't touch the Walker

story "with a 10-foot pole." He also said that he couldn't see larger trade

houses taking the political chance of telling what looks to be an unsympathetic

story.

Mr. Friedlander said that, in his opinion, the Unabomber's

manifesto was "a historical document," whereas the story of an American kid

from a broken family finding a new-albeit religiously zealous and

violent-family is "a tiny footnote in the annals of history" and "the product

of an overheated news cycle."

"It's not like he's John Brown," laughed Mr. Friedlander. "He's

John Walker."

Literary agent and

conservative pundit Lucianne Goldberg is another one who wouldn't touch a

Walker proposal with "a 10-foot pole." Still, Ms. Goldberg said, if Mr.

Walker's family was so inclined, they probably wouldn't have trouble finding a

publisher.

"Where there's a buck to be

made, there's always a publisher who wants to take it. The race is to the

swift," Ms. Goldberg said. But, she added: "I think a publisher would rather

have a journalist go do this story than people with a vested interest," such as

Mr. Walker's parents. "For them, getting a sympathetic view is always the

motive," Ms. Goldberg added. "Anyway"-and this is a serious problem-"they'd be

hard to promote. A publisher would have a hard time booking the parents on, you

know, The Today Show . They're not

sympathetic people."

Though all of the sources contacted by The Transom denied

interest in publishing or representing Mr. Walker or his family, all were

curious as to why they hadn't seen a proposal yet. Indeed, in a sign that New

York's commercial instincts were once again flowing freely, several called back

and asked to be informed if an agent or lawyer for the project was eventually

tracked down.

The Howard Awards

On Dec. 6, 2001, Our Town ,

the community newspaper of the East Side, published its 31st anniversary issue

devoted to its annual "Our Town Thanks You" awards. Otherwise known as OTTY's,

the awards honor East Siders "who have achieved greatness in the past year."

To achieve such a feat, the self-described "small-town newspaper

in the big city"- where you can "see your neighbor's name in a story about

community opposition to a new tall building"-reached out to its readers and

community leaders and asked them to nominate candidates in 11 categories, from

"Royalty of Retail" to "Community Activists," to determine a "veritable 'who's

who' of New Yorkers."

According to Tom Allon, the paper's publisher and editor in

chief, reporters and editors at the paper and by Mr. Allon himself then

augmented the list of candidates. The names were then sent to a panel of nine

judges led by public-relations executive Howard Rubenstein, who recommended

four of the judges on the panel (Mr. Allon picked the rest).

So some careful readers of Our Town were amused that at least four

of the year's first-prize winners, as well as a number of the runners-up, had

connections to the judges-especially Mr. Rubenstein.

Jack Rudin, for instance, whose Rudin Management is repped by

Howard Rubenstein and Associates, came in first in the "Moguls" category.

Cristyne Lategano Nicholas, whose NYC & Company is also repped by Mr.

Rubenstein's firm, won a first prize in the "Culture Club" category. Indeed,

Ms. Nicholas may have had more than one judge in her corner: Lisa Linden, the

co-chair of NYC & Company's "Crisis Communications Committee," also sat on

the judges' panel.

And Hunter College President Jennifer Raab, whose institution

recently hired the indomitable Mr. Rubenstein to represent it, had the good

fortune to come in first in the "Educators" category. As for Dr. Harold Varmus,

president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the year's "Health Care

Pros" category winner, his own vice president for marketing, Ellen Miller

Sonet, sat on the judges' panel. The list goes on.

Asked about the potential conflicts of interest, Mr. Allon said:

"Howard Rubenstein had absolutely nothing to do with who was nominated for the

awards." He added that Mr. Rubenstein's vote did not count any more than the

votes of the other eight judges on the panel. "We're not going to penalize

somebody just because someone on the panel was linked to their institution,"

Mr. Allon said.

"No one judge had an influence

that went beyond his or her own vote," Mr. Rubenstein said when asked about the

OTTY's. "To me, it wasn't a conflict of interest-I represent so many prominent,

effective, valuable New Yorkers that it doesn't surprise me. I have so many

clients that have done good things for New York." Mr. Rubenstein's authority as

head judge, he said, would go no further than helping to hand out the awards at

the Jan. 10 ceremony at the embattled National Arts Club.

"There's always a potential for conflict of interest in any

competition," Mr. Allon summed up. "But we tried to avoid it as much as

possible."

Gehry's Layover

When Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum director Thomas Krens announced

the opening of the exhibition Frank

Gehry, Architect last spring, he said, "Place two unlikely elements

together and Frank will say, 'Why not?'"

As part of that exhibition, Mr. Gehry was allowed to do an

"architectural intervention" on the Guggenheim's Frank Lloyd Wright building on

Fifth Avenue. After Mr. Gehry and his staff draped aluminum-mesh panels from

the rotunda skylight and installed a "titanium-clad canopy" over a terrace on

the landmark building's façade, Herbert Muschamp, in a review in The New York Times , wrote, "You want the

best? Here it is."

But now, four months after the show closed, Mr. Gehry's titanium

canopy-which looks like a curly scrap off the crumpled-metal Guggenheim Museum

he built in Bilbao, Spain, in 1997-still punctuates the museum's façade. Some

observers are asking why.

With the museum Mr. Gehry

designed for the Guggenheim in lower Manhattan stalled by the events of Sept.

11, the canopy is the only visible link between the architect and the museum in

New York City.

During the first week of January, the Guggenheim requested an

extension on a seven-month temporary permit they had received to install Mr.

Gehry's canopy. Sherida Paulsen, chairwoman of the city's Landmarks

Preservation Commission, said, "We would only allow one temporary extension,

which we generally allow for six months." Anything beyond that would require

another application and a public review for a certificate of appropriateness,

she said.

Guggenheim spokeswoman Betsy Ennis said an additional application

would not be necessary. "It's definitely not permanent. People thought it was

very beautiful and very interesting … so they kept it up a little bit longer."

Still, Ms. Ennis said, "I don't know exactly when it's coming down."

A spokesman at Frank O. Gehry & Associates in Santa Monica,

Calif., said, "That's all in the hands of the Guggenheim. We will support

whatever decision they make. The piece belongs to them."

-Lauren Ramsby

A Cook's Musical Tour

Wearing a black jacket, black shirt, black jeans and black shoes,

Anthony Bourdain, the author of Kitchen

Confidential , walked into Siberia on West 40th and Ninth. A good hundred

friends and associates were waiting for him to celebrate the publication of his

latest book, A Cook's Tour: In Search of

the Perfect Meal , a chronicle of nine months of traveling and adventurous

eating (undercooked iguana tamales in Mexico, sheep's testicles in Morocco, the

poisonous puffer fish in Japan, a still-beating cobra's heart in Vietnam).

There's also an accompanying TV series on the Food Network, which debuted the

next day, Jan. 8.

"Do we have the Dead Boys on the jukebox?" he asked the bar's

owner and his "spiritual mentor," Tracy Westmoreland, who at his request had

reloaded it with more punk rock, Velvet Underground and the Super Fly soundtrack.

"My musical taste stopped in 1985," explained the 45-year-old

writer, who's been called the Lou Reed and Hunter Thompson of the food world.

"The most tragic moment of my life was a) the day Joey Ramone

died, and b) finding out he was listening to U2 when he did. It's like finding

out the Rosenbergs really were guilty-and," Mr. Bourdain added, "they were."

These were harsh words, but Mr. Ramone was once part of Mr.

Bourdain's pantheon. "You know, there have been five touchstones in my life,

and seeing the Ramones the first time was one of them," Mr. Bourdain said.

-George Gurley