The Journal News has a database of New York's "shovel-ready" projects. [JN]
Numerous doctors, including the chief of pediatrics, joined a protest against the closing of two private hospitals in Queens. [QC]
Lauren Collins has a very nice story about Jean Kennedy Smith, Barack Obama and a D.C. taxi driver named Jean Claude Excellent. [NYer]
Maybe development blight really is going to be the issue of 2009–at least among city bloggers. [TANYer]
About Japan's "lost decade," Robert Samuelson writes, "The reality seems to be that Japan's economic reverses reflect deeply held social and political values. The same might be true of us." [WP]