New York Magazine interviews State Senator Dan Squadron: "Has there ever been a more potentially disenchanting time for a
reform-minded freshman state senator to be introduced to the ways of
Albany than this past spring? We doubt it!"

The Tribeca Tribune has a look at the five candidates competing to represent District 1 on the City Council. They've also posted video interviews with the contenders. 

City Council member Alan Gerson sits down for a web radio interview this afternoon. 

Save the Lower East Side has some thoughts on saving the neighborhood's retail sector.

From the Tenement Museum: a look at how ethic groups mingled on the Lower East Side.

The New York Times' "Urban Eye," features one of our favorite organizations, which could use a little help from its friends:

The always-awesome Rooftop Films is struggling: They need to raise $70,000 to keep going through next year. Show your support tonight: visit them at their first-ever screening
in the Bronx. The films are "Bronx Princess"  and "Nora," both about young New Yorkers with ties to Africa, and there will be live music before the show. Tickets are free, so kick it up with a donation.

W Magazine features the minimalist LES apartment of MOMA curator Klaus Biesenbach:

The building that houses Biesenbach’s New York apartment, on Grand
Street near the entrance to the Williamsburg Bridge, also has echoes of
midcentury socialism: First-time visitors often mistake it for a public
housing project. It’s one of those monolithic brick towers from the
late Fifties that are now commonly regarded as gloomy, pseudo-modernist
knockoffs. “I used to think that this type of architecture was a
failure,” Biesenbach acknowledges. But in Berlin, he says, “I realized
how great it actually feels to live in a building like this. There’s a
simplicity that’s incredibly liberating.”