In a New York Post op-ed piece, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver says he and his colleagues are willing to make the hard choices that will be necessary to end the state's budget crisis. And in a sign of the Apocalypse, the Post responds by calling Silver "the last adult in Albany," who may be "New York's only hope." The Daily News, on Silver's meeting with the governor yeserday: "Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver
emerged to say, in the cryptic way only he can, that he is neither
ruling out nor in the possibility of a two-way budget deficit deal." And in a separate story today, the News reports: "A frustrated Sheldon Silver told fellow Assembly members Monday he does not believe a budget relief deal with the governor and Senate can get done anytime soon. So the Assembly speaker and his members are considering striking their own deal with Gov. Paterson to pressure the Senate, sources told the Daily News."
The Village Voice takes a skeptical view of the Post's new-found appreciation of the Speaker:
Hold on. Is this the same New York Post that headlined an editorial, "UFT FIDDLES, SILVER DANCES"? And called the MTA's price raise "SPEAKER SILVER'S FARE HIKE"? And talked about "Lord Mayor of Albany Sheldon Silver and his pliant handmaidens" and "The most obscene offense of all in Shelly Silver's fiefdom" and such like? Has Silver changed? Has the Post? Don't let it throw you. Post owner Rupert Murdoch and Silver go back a long ways. Silver green-lighted a cozy land deal then-governor Pataki gave the Post in 1998.
They're two old dogs who've been in power a long time, and they know
how things work: Money talks and bullshit makes the first edition. The
pre-ordained fall guy for the recent Albany shenanigans is David Paterson; Silver knows it and so does Murdoch. And now they're getting around to letting you know it. It just goes to show that you can't take the alternately positive and
negative screaming heads about politicians in the tabloid press any more
seriously than you might take their hot-or-not fluctuations about pop
stars who are a train wreck one month and a diva the next. It's the
kind of thing that sells papers and records, legislative and otherwise.
…there's room in Lower East Side projects for
between 4,400 and 8,000 new apartments (both fair-market and
"affordable"); a range of 1.6 million to 5 million square feet of
commercial development; and from 600,000 to 3 million square feet of
institutional space… That's a lot of development. And if multiplied
over NYCHA's many sites, the approach could help transform not just
public housing but whole neighborhoods for the better – and the city
itself.
The Museum at Elrdidge Street has commissioned artist Kiki Smith and architect Deborah Gans to design a new east window for their historic synagogue building. The renderings have not been released. But according to the New York Times it will "feature the Star of David at the center in a field of blue five-pointed stars." The design was approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission. It will replace a clear tablet-shaped glass-block window from the 1940s. The original window was replaced long ago after it was damaged. We'll have more on the project later this week.
Knickerbocker Village on Sunday's centennial anniversary of the "Uprising of the 20,000."
EV Grieve has more on the reasons behind the closing of 99X.
Bowery Boogie on Hairy Mary's Vintage – closing on Orchard Street but not going out of business.
