The New York Observer (New York, NY) back issues from October 2007:
Hiring: Carrion, Brooklyn Assemblyman.
Oct 01, 2007 ... During this relatively quiet time locally, some officials, at least, are in the political job market. A quick search over the weekend turned up the following openings: ...
Democratic Meeting Starts: Malcolm Smith Says Bush Has 'Lost His Mind'.
Oct 01, 2007 ... I'm at the Garden City Hotel right now for the state Democratic Party's fall meeting, which began with a breakfast hosted by the Nassau County Democratic Committee. Senate Democratic Leader Malcolm Smith livened up the crowd with some blunt, Rangel-esque words about George W ....
Back to School: The Time of George Pataki's Life.
Oct 01, 2007 ... A reader spotted this account of a student reunion in the latest edition of the Yale Alumni Magazine, in the class of 1967 section: Nobody had more fun than George Pataki. After 12 years of VIP suites, security guards, and the other things that isolate a public ...
The (Big) Round-Up: Monday.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Buying on a budget: Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx. [NY Times] A mother and daughter move from the Upper East Side to Starck's Downtown. [NY Times] 22 year olds search for an airy place with a kitchen. [NY Times] A profile of 500 Fifth Avenue, the sister ...
The Morning Read: Monday, October 1, 2007.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Black businessmen who won did state business with the help of Barack Obama later became major contributors to him. Bill Clinton says Hillary Clinton is wrong about the effect of his free trade agreements. Hillary Clinton has some strange contributors. ...
Monday: Rachel Zoe, Steve Guttenberg, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Rachel Zoe may not be so influential after all. The celebrity celebrity-stylist was reportedly dropped by Magnet, her longtime agency, because the firm didn't want to ruffle the Vogue editor's feathers. [Page Six] Three Whips and a Memoir? Brooklyn native Steve Guttenberg has a ...
As Goes the Downtown Office Market, So Goes Manhattan.
Oct 01, 2007 ... The downtown Manhattan office vacancy rate dropped from 8.37 percent in the second quarter of 2007 to 7.76 percent at the end of the third quarter, which ended Sunday, according to a new report from brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle. The vacancy rate for top-flight, Class A space in downtown ...
Secrets of the Cronkite Townhouse Sale!
Oct 01, 2007 ... As The Real Deal magazine reported on its Web site late Friday, the godly anchorman Walter Cronkite just sold a townhouse at 160 East 95th Street for $4.25 million. The deal has a few interesting back stories, starting with the fact that the 11-room house really belonged to his ...
After Court Battle, Military Recruiters to Appear at Yale Law Today.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Miltary recruiters will participate in a recruiting fair at Yale Law School for the first time in five years this afternoon, after a decision by the federal government to withhold some $350 million in funding from the school was vindicated in an appeals court. The funding withdrawal was ...
No City For the Young.
Oct 01, 2007 ... You will never likely again have as a good a chance as you did the last few years to buy a home in Manhattan. The third quarter housing numbers, out yesterday, all but slammed the door shut to homeownership for perhaps a generation of both present and future New Yorkers. The ...
At Big Benefit, Tina Brown Eschews 'The Cave'.
Oct 01, 2007 ... After spending the better part of last year penning The Diana Chronicles in relative isolation at her beach house, erstwhile New Yorker editor Tina Brown is, at least for the time being, happy to soak up the odd wingding. "I didn't want to go back into my cave right away, if you ...
The Afternoon Wrap: Monday.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Finally, a way to complain about the drug dealers living next door. [NY Post] One Hanson Place takes its hat off. [Curbed] Architect ...
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: Fox Business Network Launches Website.(Website overview)
Oct 01, 2007 ... The Fox Business Network launched its website late this afternoon, and here's some advice: turn your volume down before you type in the URL--www.foxbusiness.com--because when the intro video starts there will be lots of guitars almost immediately. The riffs are huge and merciless, we are ...
Elsewhere: Spitzer, Cuomo, Gotbaum.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Eliot Spitzer is leading a lawsuit against the Bush administration over health insurance for children. Condi Rice rules out a run for national office. Democrats are divided on Eliot Spitzer's plan to allow illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses. State ...
Hillary Proposes to Block Bush on Iran.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Hillary Clinton is tough on Iran. She is also tough on President Bush. And she is tough on keeping President Bush from getting too tough on Iran. That's the signal she effectively sent today by co-sponsoring new legislation with Jim Webb of Virginia which "prohibits the use of ...
Cuomo on Spitzer: What Rivalry?
Oct 01, 2007 ... As Eliot Spitzer finished telling the state Democratic Party here at the Garden City Hotel what a productive nine months they've had since taking over every statewide office, Andrew Cuomo walked into the room and sat in the front row. Spitzer finished his speech, left the stage ...
Edwards Raises $7 Million in Third Quarter.
Oct 01, 2007 ... John Edwards raised $7 million in the third quarter fund-raising period, which is a lot less than the number announced earlier than Barack Obama. But the campaign is doing its best to make it count for more. Here are some other details put out by the campaign in a release. ...
Suozzi Loves DiNapoli, Schumer Passes on Spitzer's License Plan.
Oct 01, 2007 ... The key message being pushed today at the state Democratic Party meeting in Garden City--onetime home of Rudy Giuliani and home to the last Republican state convention--is party unity. Here, above, is State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, who organized a lunch for convention goers, ...
Obama's Third Quarter.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Here are Obama's fund-raising numbers, as released by the campaign. Third quarter totals: Primary dollars raised: at least $19 million Overall dollars raised (with ...
Mystery Man Buys $33 M. Trump World Tower Duplex.
Oct 01, 2007 ... The bizarre triumphs of Manhattan's high-end real estate market are simply unending. Just when you'd think our bubble was finally going to be bashed by the national mortgage crisis (or shaky Wall Street, or the tumbling dollar), another gargantuan deal comes along. And the ...
Geoffrey Davis on His Organization, Running Again for Office.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Here's Geoffrey Davis, the brother of slain City Councilman James Davis, at an anti-gun rally in Brooklyn this Saturday. Geoffrey tried and failed to win his brother's ...
Seriously, Game Plan? Kingdom Reigns in NYC.
Oct 01, 2007 ... The leaves have yet to change color, but it must be fall: New York City has finally gotten serious. The Kingdom (#1) reigned over the Manhattan box office this weekend, easily out-grossing the top movie in the country, the Rock comedy The Game Plan (#4). The Peter Berg-directed ...
New York Times'Jennifer 8. Lee Moves to 'City Room' Blog Full-Time.
Oct 01, 2007 ... New York Times metro reporter Jennifer 8. Lee, who has been working the night shift for the city section since January 2006, will move full-time to City Room, the Times' local news blog. Ms. Lee, who has written some of the Times' most widely-read conceptual pieces in the past ...
DiNapoli, Johnson Don't Rush to Defend Driver's License Initiative.
Oct 01, 2007 ... State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli stopped by a while ago to talk to the folks on "bloggers row" (which is actually full of recognizable print bylines like Liz Benjamin, Dan Janison and Nicholas Confessore), and said, among other things, that when he was in the Assembly, he did not support a ...
Richardson's (Very) Optimistic Man in New York.
Oct 01, 2007 ... I just chatted with Bill Richardson's volunteer state coordinator, Steve Bulko, who said he was optimistic about Richardson's prospects despite being on enemy turf. ...
Moses vs. Jacobs: The Book Sales.
Oct 01, 2007 ... After The Death and Life of Great American Cities came out in 1961, Robert Moses returned the copy he had received to its publisher, with instructions to sell the "libelous" monograph to somebody else. (The letter, mentioned in a recent New York Times review of the Jane Jacobs exhibit up ...
Supporter: Carolyn Maloney for Hillary's Senate Seat.
Oct 02, 2007 ... With the rise of Hillary Clinton's presidential prospects comes the escalating chatter about who would get to fill out the remainder of her senate term. The speculation so far has been mostly limited to half-hearted denials denials by politicians, blind quotes from ...
Hillary's "Through the Roof" Third Quarter.
Oct 02, 2007 ... Hillary Clinton is reporting a huge number, $27 million raised in the third quarter - but has not yet divulged how much of that is primary money, which is the key measurment in gauging where she stacks up against Obama, who announced the raising od nearly $20 million in primary money ...
Spitzer's Official Non-Greeting of Andrew Cuomo.
Oct 02, 2007 ... Here's a clip of Eliot Spitzer finishing his speech at the state Democratic Party's conference yesterday at the Garden City Hotel, then walking out without acknowledging Andrew Cuomo, who was sitting in the front row. To my knowledge, this would have been the first public ...
Financial Times Girds for Battle With Rupert.
Oct 02, 2007 ... With Rupert Murdoch talking about taking The Wall Street Journals Web site free, Financial Times is girding its loins for battle. The newspaper announced yesterday that later this month it will initiate a program that allows online readers to access 30 articles a month without ...
Poll: Spitzer Should Clear the Air.
Oct 02, 2007 ... According to a Quinnipiac poll released today, Eliot Spitzer's approval rating is 47 - 34 percent, down slightly from 48 - 28 in July. By a 78 - 17 percent margin, voters in the survey said Spitzer should testify under oath about what he knows about his aides plan to use the ...
The Round-Up: Tuesday.
Oct 02, 2007 ... Shocker: despite national trends, housing still expensive in Manhattan and Brooklyn. [NY Times] Durst developers suggest elevated people mover for West Side rail yards. [NY Post] Kent Swig now at the helm of Helmsley-Spear. [NY Post] ...
Plaza Celebrates 100 Years With Martha, Donald and ... Paul Anka!
Oct 02, 2007 ... Just after 8:00 on the evening of October 1st, with a large group of dapperly dressed guests gathered in Grand Army Plaza below, a 12-foot cake shining in the spotlight amidst them, and a small cast of hosts counting down from ten on stage, the first sparks of light erupted from the ...
Coulter Culture.
Oct 02, 2007 ... Ann Coulter's new book, If Democrats Had Any Brains They'd Be Republicans, hits bookshelves today, and as is his wont, George Gurley sat down with the self-proclaimed right-wing polemicist for a long chat appearing in tomorrow's editions of The Observer. George gave us a few ...
Bill Clinton Finds Gratitude, Forgiveness in Lowell.
Oct 02, 2007 ... There was a certain generic familiarity to the proceedings at the jam-packed city auditorium in Lowell, Massachusetts on the night of Sunday, Sept. 30: With Tina Turner's "Simply the Best" blaring and more than 2,500 Democrats screaming and stomping their feet in delight, Bill Clinton ...
The Morning Read: Tuesday, October 2, 2007.
Oct 02, 2007 ... "The president was out of touch with the reality on the ground," Eliot Spitzer said in announcing a lawsuit against the federal government over children's health insurance. Spitzer's plan to allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses is being criticized (more) by ...
Events for October 2, 2007.(Conference news)
Oct 02, 2007 ... 8:30 a.m. The Economist Intelligence Unit will conduct a business round-table on the future of New York as the world's business hub at Jumeirah Essex House, 160 Central Park South. 9 a.m. The United Nations will host an international conference on the proliferation of depleted ...
Zuckerman Unsound.
Oct 02, 2007 ... EXIT GHOST By Philip Roth Houghton Mifflin, 304 pages, $26 What to do when the best living American novelist writes a weak book? The New Yorker solved the problem (in the Oct. 1 issue) with an extended Q&A, allowing Hermione Lee to caress the author with ...
Bruce Is Loose.
Oct 02, 2007 ... Early responses have pegged Bruce Springsteen's latest album, "Magic," his first in five years with the E Street Band, as a return to classic form and a retreat from all that anti-war hot-button stuff; good old classic rock. These reviews evince a welcome relief from the ...
Congestion Pricing Foes Make Parking Play.
Oct 02, 2007 ... The lobbying group opposing congestion pricing is considering ways to reform curbside parking as one alternative to the Mayor's plan to charge drivers $8 to enter core areas of Manhattan. The group, Keep NYC Congestion Tax Free (which now has a Web site), even approached Donald ...
New Willie Mays Biography Comes With Strings Attached.
Oct 02, 2007 ... A lot of writers have asked Willie Mays over the years if he would cooperate with them on a book, and almost every time, the baseball legend has refused their advances. About two weeks ago, however, at the age of 76, the Say Hey Kid appeared to have had a change of heart, as news surfaced ...
Times Reporter John Burns Adjusts to Life After Baghdad.
Oct 02, 2007 ... When New York Times reporters John F. Burns and James Glanz met at the Four Seasons restaurant in Amman, Jordan, in August, they talked less about bureau protocols, and more about the human costs of war. The following day, Mr. Glanz would head into Baghdad to take the reins from Mr. Burns ...
Mother Jones Lures David Corn From The Nation.
Oct 02, 2007 ... "I think my bureau will be almost as big as the Time magazine bureau," David Corn was telling The Observer on Monday afternoon, a kid-in-a-candy-store excitement in his voice. That morning, Mr. Corn--whose name for years has been synonymous with the Washington coverage of the country's ...
Aaaaugh-bama!
Oct 02, 2007 ... In recent weeks, Barack Obama's chief campaign strategist David Axelrod has met with major contributors at the campaign's Chicago headquarters and in private homes to allay concerns about his candidate's lack of movement in the national polls. Obama campaign manager David Plouffe has ...
Clinton Campaign Gets In Gloat Mode With $27 Million.
Oct 02, 2007 ... Hillary Clinton delighted her top donors on Tuesday by posting a third quarter fund-raising total significantly higher than the one reported by Barack Obama. "This the confirmation of Hillary's front-runner status," said Fred Hochberg, a major donor to Mrs. Clinton and the dean ...
Tea With Miss Coulter.
Oct 02, 2007 ... Ann Coulter, wearing black sunglasses, a white tank top and capri pants, was sitting on a couch in the Carlyle Hotel's tea room. It was a few days before the publication of her book, If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans. I asked her if the war on terror was still ...
Spitzer's Inconvenient Proposal.
Oct 02, 2007 ... Eliot Spitzer recently unveiled an ambitious plan to allow illegal immigrants to obtain New York state driver's licenses, winning support from The New York Times editorial page, invoking angry opposition from state Republicans, and garnering national attention across the board. ...
Commuter Dudes Mount Skateboards, Ignore Wives.
Oct 02, 2007 ... Fred Mahe, a 36-year-old software salesman, twists his tie into a neat knot while riding his skateboard up Madison Avenue from his home in the Financial District to his office at 42nd Street and 3rd Avenue. "It's like a magic carpet," he said of his trusty transport. "You just kind of ...
Warehouse Owner Opposed to Columbia Expansion Sold to Con Ed Last Year.
Oct 02, 2007 ... Nick Sprayregen, the storage business owner who has taken a high-profile stand against Columbia's use of eminent domain in West Harlem, faced a similar situation in East Harlem last year. But instead of fighting to keep control over his warehouse, he sold the 23,000-square foot ...
Is Columbia Expansion a Done Deal?
Oct 02, 2007 ... "The way a friend put it, the borough president popped Columbia's cherry." This was Jordi Reyes-Montblanc speaking, a Cuban-born New Yorker with a Santa Claus beard who chairs a community board in upper Manhattan that oversees the area where Columbia University wants to build a ...
Can Former Adman Donny Deutsch Help CNBC Hold Off Fox?
Oct 02, 2007 ... On a recent Tuesday afternoon, Donny Deutsch stood in a television studio at CNBC headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., and gazed into the studio audience. Mr. Deutsch, a former New York adman, had just finished taping an episode of the show he hosts, The Big Idea With Donny Deutsch, ...
Finance Bigwig Becomes First to Close in Schnabel's Village Palazzo--Pays $15.5 M.
Oct 02, 2007 ... Sure, heartland American real estate is continuing to tank, but onyx-gilded New York apartments are floating up higher and higher into the eight-digit stratosphere. Take the just-completed $33.6 million deal for a three-unit duplex penthouse at Trump World Tower, the shiny ...
British Knight Ronald Cohen Captures SoHo Condo Castle for $5 M.
Oct 02, 2007 ... The formidable British power-player Sir Ronald Cohen, the daddy of England's private equity industry and a bosom buddy of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, has a hip new SoHo loft. Sir Ronald, "one of the most powerful men in Britain, who combines discretion with a reputation for ...
Za Vas! Putin Nemesis Gambles On $5 M. Plaza Condo.
Oct 02, 2007 ... Back in 1995, long before the Plaza was shuttered for its massive new condo renovation, Masha Tolstoy Sarandinaki (the novelist's great-granddaughter) and Princesses Martha Kropotkin and Tatiana Galitzine grooved at the hotel's Russian Nobility Association Spring Ball. Their ...
Sold! Bombshell Model Oluchi Onweagba Buys $1.7 M. West End Condo--Downtown's 'Too Busy'.
Oct 02, 2007 ... New York's residential real estate market would be in profound trouble if incredibly beautiful women, the kind that get paid handsomely to skulk down catwalks, didn't buy up gobs of apartments. According to city records, the Nigerian-born supermodel Oluchi Onweagba just bought a ...
GOOD Party Ain't That Great ... You Know Things Are Bad When You're Wishing for Wild Man Al Gore.
Oct 02, 2007 ... "I know like five of these people, maybe," said Zach Frechette, 25, editor-in-chief of GOOD magazine ("for people who give a damn"), at his magazine's one-year anniversary party on Saturday, Sept. 29, ambitiously staged at the National Museum of the American Indian at Bowling Green. Mr ....
Three Blockbuster Targets for the Mets.
Oct 02, 2007 ... As has been argued in this space, the Mets can put themselves in a position to win next season with a few meaningful, if not flashy, moves this winter. Signing middle reliever David Riske would solidify the bullpen, for example, but is unlikely to earn headlines from the Daily News or the ...
Musto Lets Loose! Tells of the Night Tinsley Tried to Queer-Block Him!
Oct 02, 2007 ... Does Tinsley Mortimer have a beef with the gays? According to bespectacled Village Voice columnist Michael Musto, the golden-tressed socialite pushed his button--the wrong one--backstage at the People's Choice Awards last winter. "[Mr. McMullan] has lots of pictures of Tinsley ...
He Can't Hyde: Chef Gordon Ramsay's Nemesis Surfaces At Swish Car Service.
Oct 02, 2007 ... The so-called "little bit of shit" that potty-mouthed star chef Gordon Ramsay "just can't get out" has wiggled his way into a new line of work. Martin Hyde, the former restaurant manager of Dillon's in the theater district, who angrily quit during a spat with the combative ...
LeeLee Sobieski, Onetime Lolita, Is Gorgeous--and Gorges!--at New York Film Fest Bash.
Oct 02, 2007 ... At the New York Film Festival's opening night party, which was held on Friday, Sept. 28, at the elegantly faded, labyrinthine Central Park restaurant Tavern on the Green, the actress LeeLee Sobieski approached an outdoor table and asked if she and her friends, the pleasantly rumpled ...
Can 388 Greenwich Get $1.82 B.?
Oct 02, 2007 ... So many questions in real estate right now: What's going to happen to Harry Macklowe? Will investment banks bother renting space? Will commissions still be around in December? In the investment sales world, there is a fixed and careful eye on three building sales that should ...
Oh No They Didn't! Brokers Utter the U-Word as Rents Peak.
Oct 02, 2007 ... For the first time in a while at a Cushman & Wakefield breakfast market meeting, the eggs and raspberries of power eatery Michael's didn't sit so well. There was cautious--emphasize cautious--optimism from the Cushman team forecasting the Manhattan real estate market. Yes, rents ...
Downtown's Biggest Chunk--Nearly 1 Million Feet Up For Lease in Taconic's 375 Pearl.
Oct 02, 2007 ... Cushman & Wakefield's Joseph Harbert complained on Tuesday that the financial district isn't the home for big deals like it used to be. "What we don't see--what we don't see--are large deals happening downtown. In fact, there are only two deals about 100,000 square feet this year," he ...
Listen, Sonny! Old Fogeys School Ivan Kane on the New New York.
Oct 02, 2007 ... Ivan Kane was probably wondering what happened to his old frisky-friendly hometown. Behind his blue-tinted glasses, the sharp-dressed nightclub impresario looked out on the angry mob that had assembled against him: Graying, middle-aged, family-oriented folks, for the most part; ...
Average Manhattan Apartment Price Jumps Near $1.4 M.
Oct 02, 2007 ... The average price of a Manhattan apartment hit $1,369,486 in the third quarter of 2007, which ended Sunday. Though nearly a record, it's merely par for the course--it should scream, but it's really a whisper. The story of the average apartment price in Manhattan is one of ...