Results tagged “jakedobkin”

Later today, the city will discuss whether the I.M. Pei-designed Silver Towers should be landmarked. The Observer reported that NYU announced its support today, a reversal from an earlier position over three years ago.

Yesterday was the annual Idiotarod, which is both loved and hated by locals. We hear that this year the head honchos were tossing non-competitors out of the checkpoints, this coupled with the amount of jocks tackling people leads us to believe that this (sadly) may have been the last good run. There have also been a ton of complaints about the competitors and organizers littering the streets, leaving their paths trashed with no clean-up effort.

Cosmopolitan candy men and women packed the hotly-anticipated opening of Papabubble on Broome Street Saturday night. The high-end confectioner has been a big hit in Barcelona, Tokyo and Amsterdam, so it was only a matter of time before the New York market opened wide for some gourmet candy “sculpture”. Their new location continues the Papabubble tradition of preparing the sweets in-store, which has proven to be an entertaining and well-nigh irresistible marketing strategy. You tell yourself you’re just stopping in for a quick peek and maybe one free sample, next thing you know you’re passed out on the curb with your blood sugar crashing like a Cessna.

The NY Sun is reporting that the Parks Department received a lackluster response from community members and government representatives last night after agency officials released yet another design for a renovated Washington Square Park.

The NY Times explores what happens to celebrity architects’ drawings, models and telephone logs culled from decades in the design trenches. Hint: They’re for sale.

EVENT: The New York Book Club at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum presents…"Breaking News: How the Associated Press Has Covered New York City". The panelists include "Hal Buell, longtime AP photo editor who put images of the Vietnam War in newspapers across America; Richard Drew, AP photographer who has covered New York events including 9/11; Edie Lederer, longtime UN correspondent and first woman to be the foreign chief of bureau; and Valerie Komor, corporate archives director of the AP."

A few weeks ago, the Brooklyn Paper suggested that the Red Hook grain terminal might become a storage facility for building materials. The NY Times follows up with a look at the progress so far and the building's decrepit appeal. John Quadrozzi, who wants approval to store materials for concrete and cement there, said the silos could hold 70,000 tons of cement and is essentially built like a bomb shelter because they used to hold "combustible grain" (!). The Department of Environmental Conservation is currently reviewing plans for renovation.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an overturned auto on Father Capodonno Blvd. and Doty Ave. on Staten Island, a shooting on Manhattan's Sherman Ave. and a barricaded perp on Manhattan's East 23rd St.
• The upstate shootout that ended with two state Troopers dead and a house burned with the suspect inside? One Trooper shot the other, who was then killed from gunshot wounds to the face and chest.
• The legal system is not synonymous with "common sense" in most people's minds, but the judge presiding over the McGreeveny (gay-American) Matos (woman scorned) divorce is recommending they get their acts together and start behaving like adults.
• Perhaps feeling emasculated after its "negotiation" turnabout with the organizers of the San Gennarro Festival, Community Board 2 asserts its authority with redesigners of Washington Square.
• Alec Baldwin attempts to get a grip on fatherhood by consulting with Dr. Phil. We used to be a father. [gulp] It's a tough racket.
• The federal government is trying to go all TVA on us with a powerline from the south through NY state. Gov. Spitzer insists "Oh no you don't!"
• It will be done slowly, carefully, and over the space of many months, but Chumley's will be salvaged and you will be able to eat dinner with dogs sleeping at your feet in the future.
• The play is the thing and it persists in NYC no matter what.
• The Rave Awards are being held this evening in San Francisco. Jen Chung and Jake Dobkin are being accoladed. We are happy to be working with them.

The Observer has an article that, upon reading it, appears to have been written two years ago. "Blog Ghetto" scratches the surface of a scene that's been around for quite a while, and uncovers things such as: bloggers sometimes hang out with each other...and drink...at The Magician (and other "Hell Square" watering holes). The profile on the scene makes it seem very 90210-esque, even calling The Magician "Blogger High's Peach Pit" and picking out a Dylan McKay-esque resident stud (apparently A.J. Daulerio).

There seem to be a lot of LVHRD events lately! Tonight they present Bi-FOLD II: Street.

THEATER: Beastie Boy Adrock (who turns 40 next month!) was but a wee homey when his father, Israel Horovitz, penned his hit play “Line” 32 years ago. That dark comedy is the longest-running play in off-off-Broadway history. It’s about five people stuck on line and their shameless machinations to get to the front. The theater’s website boasts that the play has been performed in 25 countries and split the sides of 100,000 theatergoers. Who will be 100,001? - John Del Signore

- And will it rain tonight? Either way, have a great, safe time!

If you haven't made friends with someone who has East River and/or Statue of Liberty waterfront views yet, we have some answers. The Macy's Fireworks Spectacular has 3 different fireworks launching sites this year (here's the map) - on the East River between 23rd and 42nd streets, between Liberty and Ellis Islands, and south of South Street Seaport. The fireworks are set to light up the sky over the East River around 9pm.

Mothers and fathers, don't just dream about your children being doctors (well, doctors might be passe, given malpractice coverage), lawyers or hedge fund managers: Have them set their sights on being the president of a major university. amNew York has a feature on salaries of NYC college/university presidents. The presidents are mostly charged with fund-raising, hence needing a real "performer" that gets a sweet compensation package, but the money they make can be pretty sick (note: private institutions pay more, natch).

The NYCLU is working with the FBI as the federal agency investigates whether the NYPD violated civil rights of protesters during the Republican National Convention in 2004. The FBI only confirmed they did send a letter to the NYCLU, but luckily the NYCLU has a PDF of the letter here. The FBI is looking for Dennis Kyne, whose arrest was thrown out after "videotape contradicted" the police officer's account. Interesting - and we're sure the Secret Service has a list of all the protesters just in case. Still, the NYCLU loves it: "Commissioner Kelly may have thought he could ignore complaints from the civil rights community and even the Civilian Complaint Review Board about Convention arrests, but we doubt he can ignore the FBI." And we heard about the Civilian Complaint Review Board's investigations last week.

We hope you've got your padded spandex and your cushy bike seat, because May is bike month here in New York City. Organized by the good people at Transportation Alternatives, there are over 150 great events going on all about the city. While some of the events have already happened, there are tons of events left (the month is so jam packed that there were events in April and there are some in June) including some of the bigger ones starting tomorrow.

Stephen Colbert can now add 'linguist' to his resume. His "truthiness" was awarded word of the year by the American Dialect Society. Defined as "the quality of stating concepts or facts one wishes or believes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true," truthiness was not in fact coined by Colbert, but definitely reinvented. One example of truthiness might be Gothamist's publication of Donald Trump as a sperm freezing, propecia doused publicity whore...sort of true, but not proven. Colbert used "truthiness" back in October 2005 and many news venues reported on it then, including Oprah and Nightline. The NY Times reported on Colbert's "truthiness" as well, though they referred to it as "trustiness." Colbert's response? "Trustiness isn't even a word."

Cool stuff: The 92nd Street Y/ Makor has a Roosevelt Island Hike this Sunday. As per the 92nd Street Blog, Roosevelt Island is more than just the decaying old hospital, the Island once had the "city’s main prison, a smallpox hospital, a disease research laboratory, an insane asylum, a fort and a lighthouse." There are some new development planned for Roosevelt Island (great midtown views!) but the movie Dark Water took the depressing approach to living there.

- And some numbers about the Oscars from Dan Dickinson

New York Magazine has not one, but five separate articles on bloggers in this week's issue. Some priceless quotes:

- We understand the babies are some kind of fashion statement these days, but for the love of god, keep your tots out of the bars.

We reminded you last week to vote for the Plug Awards, and now is your chance to check out the actual awards ceremony. The awards are tonight at Webster Hall and will include a sampling of some of our favorite bands:

On Sundays, Gothamist prints opinion pieces related to life in New York. If you want to submit one, email us! The opinions expressed below belong to the author, not to our site.

There is an awesome NY Times story about how the police "covertly join in" various city protests, possibly to rile things up. Gothamist knew that those ads for NYPD recruitment were to attract a hipper, younger force, sort of like a 2005 version of 21 Jump Street! It seems that the operation has been to surveil crowds ever since the start of the Republican National Convention, back at the end of August 2004. The NYPD claims that the undercover officers are trying to keep the peace, not "investigate political activities." The Times looked at some footage that showed "at least 10 officers...incognito at the events," seeming to affirm what civilians are saying:

Ryan Kuonen, 32, who took part in a "ride of silence" in memory of a dead cyclist, said that two undercover officers - one with a camera - subverted the event. "They were just in your face," she said. "It made what was a really solemn event into something that seemed wrong. It made you feel like you were a criminal. It was grotesque."

Recently, it was announced that architect James Ingo Freed died last week. Who? He was a partner at Pei, Cobb, Freed and Partners - the firm started by I.M. Pei; you can read his bio here. While many obituaries called out the fact that he designed the Holocaust Museum in D.C. (here's a link to the museum), Freed designed a lot of recognizable city buildings: The Kips Bay Plaza housing, University Plaza Towers on Bleecker (also known as Silver Towers), 88 Pine Street in Wall Street, and the Jacob Javits Center. In fact, as noted in the Times obituary, the MoMA's Terrence Riley says that University Plaza and 88 Pine are "two of the most refined examples of modern design in all of Manhattan."

On Sundays, Gothamist publishes opinion pieces by its contributors and friends. The opinions expressed in this piece belong only to the author, who, in this case, is me.