The New York Observer (New York, NY) back issues from January 2009:
Underrated Performances from 2008, Two from Che!(Video recording review)
Jan 01, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ The most unappealing part of the Oscar season--besides the sniping text messages from Mickey Rourke--is observing how the echo chamber created by critics (and bloggers) ends up affecting the mindset of actual Academy Award voters. It seems like fewer and fewer movies ...
Finally, Check-Out Time for Hotel Penn?
Jan 01, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ Steve Roth's Vornado Realty Trust has filed an application with the city to rezone the site of the 90-year-old Hotel Pennsylvania, clearing hurdles for the real estate firm to demolish the hotel and build an office tower of up to 2.85 million square feet in its place. ...
Obama and the Inevitable Fight Over Holder.
Jan 01, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ For an opposition party looking for respect from a new president, the best advice is the same advice that might be given to a freshly-arrived prison inmate: Find someone - anyone - and throw a punch. Right away. And so it's become something of a tradition ...
The Afternoon Wrap: Thursday.
Jan 01, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ Atlantic City's Trump Entertainment Resorts has until Jan. 21 to restructure its debt after missing a $53 million payment on Dec. 1. [Bloomberg via GlobeSt] In a year when eco-friendly development triumphed, a look back at the top green building stories of ...
Elsewhere: Local Papers Look Forward.
Jan 01, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ Newsday's Dan Janison has nine big themes to consider for the new year. The Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin names nine locals to watch in 2009, including State Senator Tom Libous and Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo. The Buffalo News' Rod Watson ...
Appelbaum Disagrees On Kennedy's Ties to Obama.
Jan 01, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum emailed me to take issue with Kevin Sheekey's latest argument for appointing Caroline Kennedy to Hillary Clinton's Senate seat. Sheekey has recently said that Kennedy should get the job because she endorsed Barack Obama in ...
Silver Boosts Caroline, Funding the Infrastructure.
Jan 01, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ Ben calls Sheldon Silver's comment's about Caroline Kennedy "daylight." [BS] Some railroad bridges in New Jersey are cleared for replacement, for which the state is seeking $3 bilion in federal financing. [NYT] A government panel is recommending ...
New Year's Day Bloomberg on Babies, Earmuffs, Drinking With the Clintons.
Jan 01, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ Michael Bloomberg visited two babies born in Queens and declared, officially, that they're both the first babies born in 2009. He joked, "Some of the papers will find problems with the mayor abusing his authority by doing this. But, you know, that's what ...
Happy New Year, Music Biz! You're Still Totally Screwed.
Jan 01, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ Now that 2008 is officially over, it seems we have no choice but to turn bravely around, slowly open our eyes, and cringe at the slow, sad decline of the music industry. There were a few bright spots, yes. Lil Wayne--a guy who's made a career out of releasing his music ...
'09 To Bring Green Apartments, Girls Clubhouse to Avenue D.
Jan 01, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ The landscape will look different in 2009, but girls will still be girls, and the Lower Eastside Girls Club, with development partner Dermot Company, is still moving forward with its plans to build a clubhouse/apartment building on the Lower East Side. On ...
Paterson Opposes 'Caretaker' For New York.
Jan 01, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ ALBANY-David Paterson hasn't appeared publicly since Christmas, but took questions before continuing the New Year's Day tradition of receiving visitors at the Executive Mansion. He repeated many of his standard lines about who he will appoint to the U.S ....
Honesty: 2009's Hot New Marketing Tool!
Jan 01, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ Katherine Dykstra, writing in the January issue of The Real Deal: [W]hat was the perfect pitch in early 2008's real estate market now seems inappropriate. Over the course of one year of tumultuous financial events (a mortgage crisis, bank bailouts and ...
Single Person's Movie: Reservoir Dogs.
Jan 01, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ It's 2 a.m. and you awake with a jerk, alone in your fully lit apartment and still on the couch. On TV, the credits of some movie you've already seen a billion times are scrolling by. It feels like rock bottom. And we know, because we're just like you: single. ...
This Time Last Year.
Jan 01, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ From the Jan. 1, 2008 print edition of The Observer, in a story by Eliot Brown: Ten building deals over $1 billion, midtown office rents slumbering above $100 a square foot and total investment sales of at least $51 billion closed or in contract by ...
Mid-Morning Read: Michael Sheekey, Marty's Bubbly.
Jan 01, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ The Glen Falls Post Star names David Paterson New Yorker of the Year. Karen Tumulty has a fairly brutal assessment of Caroline Kennedy's bid for the Senate. The Daily News posts the Freudian headline: "Michael Sheekey ignores Caroline Kennedy ...
The Round-Up: Thursday.
Jan 01, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ Federal Railroad Administration approves plan to replace the ancient Portal Bridge over the Hackensack River--currently one of the worst bottlenecks in the Northeast railway system. [NY Times] Connecticut Bank accused of funneling accounts into Madoff's ...
The Pedro Feliciano Project.
Jan 01, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ For players in Caribbean winter leagues like Pedro Feliciano, each game is an exercise in multitasking. Feliciano, who is currently pitching for Leones de Ponce in Puerto Rico, has the immediate task in front of him--helping his team to the Puerto Rican ...
Herman Blackbook Offers Funds for iPhone, Boxee, Twitter Developers.
Jan 02, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ New York-based consulting firm Herman Blackbook is offering seed funding for developers making applications for open-source platforms like Twitter, the iPhone, Boxee, AppNexus and more. With their "New Platforms Fund," the company will give up to 10 "cutting edge" ...
Morning Memo: Noel Family Finds a Taker for Mustique Home; Bristol Palin's Kid Doesn't Come Cheap; P. Diddy Cheaps Out.
Jan 02, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ Madoff-tainted Walter and Monica Noel managed to rent out Yemanja, their Mustique vacation home, to someone willing to pay their $55,000-per-week asking price. [P6] People paid around $300,000 for the first pictures of Bristol Palin's son, Tripp Easton ...
Mid-Morning Read: Centenarian Charlotte Bloomberg, Ulster's New Executive.
Jan 02, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ Representative Steve Israel is traveling to Utica next week. Happy 100th birthday, Charlotte Bloomberg. Michael Bloomberg signed a law renaming numerous streets after various people, including James Brown. Fewer cars for city ...
The Round-Up: Friday.
Jan 02, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ Knitting Factory's last night in Manhattan a rager. [NY Times] Steel industry to feds: Gimme! [NY Times] Lois Weiss hands out her Golden Bricks. To Steve Roth and Michael Fascitelli: the "last-minute bet award" for pocketing $31 ...
Senate Democrats Won't Meet Until the Night Before the Big Vote.
Jan 02, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ ALBANY--State Senate Democrats will now meet as a conference on Tuesday evening, not on Saturday, as originally planned, according to three Senate Democratic sources. The vote for the chamber's leadership takes place Wednesday. Malcolm Smith has ...
Elsewhere: Kennedy for Senate, Really Maybe, Still.
Jan 02, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ The A.P., citing unnamed sources close to David Paterson, says Caroline Kennedy will get the Senate seat. Not surprisingly, not all conservatives are happy. Gawker notes Paterson is "a delightful renegade maverick" who might just pick someone ...
The Afternoon Wrap: Friday.
Jan 02, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ The evolution of that Lexington Avenue stretch from 58th to 59th. [TRD] Multi-family backer New York Community Bancorp gets preliminary OK for TARP money. [TRD] Census: Number of permits for new residential buildings in the city drops 74 ...
More Dismal '08 Investment Sales Numbers.
Jan 02, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ 2008 is over, and we'll stop flogging it in a short bit. But here's some more sad investment sales numbers for Manhattan, according to Bloomberg News: Only 20 property sales worth $5 million or more closed in the fourth quarter and there were only 250 such ...
On Monday...
Jan 02, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ 12 to 2 p.m., the National Realty Club hosts a luncheon at Williams Club, 24 East 39th Street. Sam Chandan, chief economist of REIS, will discuss "Trends ...
The Weekly Walk-Through.
Jan 02, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ We learned that: Rental agents have lost their superstar status amid the downturn. SL Green cut its dividend to make some ready cash. Joe Sitt declined to renew Dianna Carlin's ...
Just a Dang Minute There Re: Hotel Penn Designation!
Jan 02, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ "The Historic Districts Council went on record before Community Board 5 and the LPC asking for its designation, which was reported in the media, even in The Observer on January 7, 2008. In the ...
After Council Resignation, Golden Firm on Not Seating Monserrate.
Jan 02, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ ALBANY-At a conference at which State Senator Marty Golden blasted parole officials for releasing a convicted murderer after 17 years, he didn't tone things down much when discussing now-former councilman Hiram Monserrate. He held a press conference this ...
Ron Perelman, Steven Spielberg, George Soros Cough Up Big Bucks for Obama Inauguration.
Jan 02, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ In the interest of drumming up maximal funds--or "transparency"--Barack Obama's Presidential Inauguration Committee has released a chart (to be updated in real time) listing the names, employers, cities, and contributions of everyone who donates money to help make ...
Paterson and Other Governors Wish for $250 Billion for Education.
Jan 02, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ ALBANY--On a conference call this afternoon, David Paterson and four other governors outlined specifics for how they would like to see a $1 trillion federal stimulus shape up, adding a request for education aid. In addition to money for infrastructure ...
Somehow, More Aid For Food Banks.
Jan 02, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ COLONIE--David Paterson announced a $1 million cash infusion to food banks around the state, which officials say should help them get through the month of April. Dwarfed by piles of boxes at the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York, Paterson ...
Fashion Roundup: Lynn Yaeger Laid Off; Is Vogue Becoming Irrelevant?; Kira Plastinina Is No More.
Jan 02, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ The Village Voice has laid off legendary fashion writer Lynn Yaeger. [Fashionista] Cathy Horyn gets to the bottom of what's wrong with Vogue. (Summary: The magazine has gotten sort of boring.) [NYT] The clothing company established for Kira ...
Early Afternoon Update.
Jan 02, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ Happy new year! Seriously low mortgage rates on the way. [WSJ] Bruce Ratner & co. feel the burn on the ...
New York Tech Smarties Make Industry Predictions for '09.
Jan 02, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ What will be the next big thing in tech this year? How will start-ups grapple with the economic crisis? What's gonna happen to Google? Will Twitter take over the world? Charlie O'Donnell, co-founder and CEO of career-building site Path 101, asked a bunch of ...
Jumbo Mortgage Changes To Affect New York.
Jan 02, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ From the Journal's Jessica Holzer this morning: "Though mortgage rates are falling, a Jan. 1 decline in the maximum size of a mortgage that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may buy or guarantee in certain costly U.S. housing markets is likely to push interest rates higher ...
Hey, Juno Fans! Diablo Cody's United States of Tara Premieres Online.
Jan 02, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ Attention, Diablo Cody haters: Get your knives out! The stripper turned blogger turned Oscar winner is back this month with the Showtime series United States of Tara. The show doesn't premiere until Jan. 18 at 10 p.m. (following the derisible Secret Diary of a Call ...
What's Happening to New York City's Garbage?
Jan 04, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ While New York City's inadequate waste management system is one of my constant themes or perhaps obsessions, at the end of December, the New York Post published a wonderful "man bites dog:" story: The amount of garbage we are producing is going down! David Seifman, ...
A Short-Term Curse.
Jan 04, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ Author Michael Lewis and hedge fund manager David Einhorn in The New York Times over the weekend on the genesis of the current crisis: "Our financial catastrophe, like Bernard Madoff's pyramid scheme, required all sorts of important, plugged-in people to sacrifice our ...
An Intrusive Spotlight on Leadership.
Jan 04, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ A few days ago, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that Harry Reid phoned Rod Blagojevich in early December to discuss the vacant Senate seat that Blagojevich was about to fill by appointment. In the conversation, according to the paper, the Senate majority leader made it ...
Weekend in Review: Richardson Steps Out, Bloomberg Goes to Israel, Maloney Heads Upstate.
Jan 04, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ Bill Richardson withdrew his name from nomination for commerce secretary. Gary Ackerman, Ray Kelly and Michael Bloomberg are in Israel today, back tomorrow. They were at one point rushed to a bomb shelter. David Paterson is backing ...
The Gavel on Gravel.
Jan 05, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ Editor's note: A shorter version of this interview appears in the Jan. 7 print edition of The Observer. Location: With the budget, the city faces a gap of over $1 billion for the next fiscal year, mostly only by using the surpluses of prior years. Do you ...
Rod Blagojevich, Accidental Civil Rights Champion.
Jan 05, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ Roland Burris, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's choice to replace Barack Obama in the Senate, was on his way to Washington late on Monday, intent on participating in the ceremonial swearing in of new members in the Senate chamber the next day. But the ...
4Q Manhattan Housing Reports: Where's That Cliff Already?
Jan 05, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ Three major Manhattan housing market reports for the fourth quarter of 2008 were released on Monday, the first ones that can at least somewhat gauge the impact of the financial crisis. (All involve deals closed in the final three months of last year, but perhaps ...
Avi Schick Leaves ESDC.
Jan 05, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ Avi Schick, the prosecutor-turned-development official who has served as downstate president of the Empire State Development Corporation for the past two years, will leave his job this week. Mr. Schick emailed a letter on Monday evening to colleagues announcing his ...
NYSUT Staying Out of Senate Leadership Fight, Capitol March.
Jan 05, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ ALBANY--The state teacher's union is sitting on the sidelines as other labor groups get involved in the fight for the State Senate leadership. "Frankly, getting into a leadership fight makes one friend and lots of enemies - from our perspective, anyway," ...
Carpenters Back Kennedy for Senate.
Jan 05, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ The head of a union representing 25,000 carpenters in New York City just issued a statement backing Caroline Kennedy for Hillary Clinton's U.S. Senate seat, saying she's "intelligent, easy to communicate with and grasps our issues." Michael Forde, Executive ...
Elsewhere: The Panetta Surprise, the Hochberg Draft.
Jan 05, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ Barack Obama will choose Leon Panetta to run the C.I.A., delivering a surprise "even to some Obama insiders." The choice may be more about ideology than organization. Michael Benjamin says he got a vetting call regarding Adolfo Carrion. ...
Silver: Albany, Dysfunctional?
Jan 05, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ ALBANY--Sheldon Silver is displeased with a report today which said New York's legislature is "still broken." While most of the Brennan Center's rhetoric was focused on the possibility of change in the State Senate, Dan Weiller, a spokesman for the assembly ...
Fashion Roundup: Amy Winehouse to Design for Fred Perry?; John Galliano Knighted in France; Competition at the Inaugural Balls.
Jan 05, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ Troubled singer Amy Winehouse is reportedly in talks with British fashion house Fred Perry to design her own clothing collection and has already begun sketching some of her ideas. [Vogue UK] Gedalio Grinberg, chairman of the Movado Group (where he had worked ...
The Afternoon Wrap: Monday.
Jan 05, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ Private equity firm sues Kent Swig, alleging $39 million in loan defaults and fraudulent claims about Sheffield57 stake. [TRD] Sign of the times, big-time: Two Plaza condos listed for below purchase prices. [TRD] Mmmm ... Boulud. Daniel will host ...
Another Congressman Upstate.
Jan 05, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ ALBANY-Representative Steve Israel's travels in the last few weeks have taken him to Baghdad, Germany and now: Hornell. It's the first time the four-term congressman has been to the small upstate city, which he visited yesterday before visits today to ...
Legendary! Neil Patrick Harris to Host SNL.
Jan 05, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ Some bright news on an otherwise gray Monday afternoon: this coming weekend, Neil Patrick Harris will be hosting Saturday Night Live! We used to dream about Mr. Harris when he played Doogie (in fact, yours truly mentioned this in print a few years ago). We loved his ...
Ken Mitchell Hands in Petitions, Already.
Jan 05, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ At 9 a.m. this morning City Council candidate Ken Mitchell filed 2,000 signatures to get on the ballot for the February 24 special elections, his campaign announced in a public statement. It means it's likely Mitchell will wind up on the first row of the ...
On Tomorrow...
Jan 05, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ 9:30 a.m., the Landmarks Preservation Commission holds a public hearing on proposed changes for landmarked properties. 1 Centre Street, 9th floor. Agenda and info on attendance here (PDF). 10:30 a.m., the City Council's Finance Committee meets regarding, in ...
Our Critic's Tip Sheet on Current Reading: Lincoln 24/7; Bush and The Great Gatsby; Smith's Self-Absorption.
Jan 05, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ Are you ready for all Lincoln all the time? Do you worry that you'll need some help in cutting through the bicentennial blather? If you're looking for a quick refresher (as opposed, say, to the two-part, six volume mythologizing biography Carl Sandburg completed in ...
Voters Pick Cuomo Over Kennedy in New Poll.
Jan 05, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ ALBANY--A poll released today found that Caroline Kennedy's standing among New York voters has plummeted in relation to Andrew Cuomo's. Public Policy Polling in North Carolina found that 54 percent of the 700 voters surveyed this weekend said they would ...
Even Jay McInerney is a Little Surprised at How Well Bright Lights, Big City Holds Up, Even If His Critics Disagree.
Jan 05, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ Author and social fixture Jay McInerney's new book, The Last Bachelor, is being released in the UK this month; it's a short-story collection about the morally complicated relationships of middle-class Manhattanites. In a piece in the Telegraph, Mr. McInerney comes off ...
Ann Jeffery Nabs 834 Fifth's Beloved Buckhantz Listing.
Jan 05, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ The late Araxia M. Buckhantz's two-bedroom sprawl at the massively proper 834 Fifth Avenue is the kind of perfect little chunk of New York real estate that can make a very important and normally staid uptown broker cackle with excitement. "I absolutely am wild about ...
Change Hipsters Can Believe In--Obama Gets Indie Rock Bash In Washington.
Jan 05, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ When Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th President of the United States on Jan. 20, all of this "change" we've been hearing so much about will be measurable by a number of factors: His race. His persona. His vast departure from the policies of George W. Bush and his ...
New Doctor Who Announced, British Folks Rage, Most Americans Shrug, and We Are A Little Disappointed.
Jan 05, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ We have a well-documented love of Doctor Who here at the Observer, so we'd be remiss if we didn't comment on the announcement from this weekend that a replacement for beloved fop David Tennant, who will leave the show after filming a few specials this year, has finally ...
Bloomberg Takes a Pass on Kennedy's Financial Disclosure.
Jan 05, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ On Saturday, it was reported that the city granted Caroline Kennedy a waiver from disclosing her personal financial information during her two-year stint as the chief executive of the Office of Strategic Partnerships with the Department of Education. ...
'Reader' Reacts as New-York Ghost Goes From Weekly to 'Seasonal'.
Jan 05, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ This morning, fans of The New-York Ghost, the weird and frequently wonderful little "Newsletter You Print Out at Work," were treated with a new issue, Vol. IV, No. 53. But instead of calling itself a weekly, the digital-only paper of McSweeney's-like ...
Bloomberg Fills Potholes, Has No Second Thoughts About Term Limits.
Jan 05, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ Michael Bloomberg, fresh off his one-day trip to Israel, was in Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn this morning filling in a pothole. After one reporter at the event asked aloud if this meant the mayor's reelection campaign was officially underway, Bloomberg replied, ...
Stengel: This Could Be the Year for Senate Reform.
Jan 05, 2009 ... <![CDATA[ ALBANY--Will 2009 be the year of reform? A coalition of good-government advocates are making the case for "yes," and today released an update to a 2004 report by N.Y.U.'s Brennan Center which details New York's legislative dysfunction. The new report lists ...