Sad news – a fire ripped through South Bushwick Reformed Church yesterday. From all reports, the building – constructed in 1853 and a NYC Landmark – is a total loss.
Another bit of Williamsburg’s history looks to be going away. This could be a good opportunity for adaptive use, along the lines of Ulmer Brewery, though likely the zoning favors ground-up development.
Twelve years ago, writing about Bill de Blasio’s inauguration, I said that he had an opportunity to build on the biggest accomplishment of the Bloomberg years, by taking the well-run city that he was inheriting from Mike and adding much-needed equity and fairness to the civic realm. I truly thought that de Blasio (who holds a graduate degree from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs) would embrace the task of running the city.
I was wrong.
Bill, in retrospect, had little interest in the wonkery of running a city. He hired good people, but constantly got in their way. Mostly, he did not seem to enjoy the role of executive.
Twelve years on, I am optimistic that Zohran actually wants to *run* a city. He has a love of New York. He has consistently surrounded himself with other wonks who love NYC. His early appointments back me up in that hope, the latest being (not that) Michael Flynn as DOT Commissioner and Ahmed Tigani as DOB Commissioner. He has appointed some progressives, but mostly he has appointed people of competence and experience (unlike, say Adams’s first DOB commissioner). My hope is that having appointed people of ability he gives them room to run their agencies without micromanaging and political interference (a good management lesson from Bloomberg). That would be a welcome change from the MO of the past two mayors.
Yes, the city that Mamdani is inheriting is very different than the one de Blasio inherited. De Blasio had the wind at his back – the city had been well run by technocrats for 12 years and the US economy was coming out of a deep recession. Mamdani on the other hand is facing the headwinds of 12 years of civic neglect, not to mention a hostile federal government.
Here’s hoping that he can overcome all of that and make NY thrive for all.
How sad.
Sue Donoghue, one of the Adams administration’s good hires, announced her upcoming resignation last night.
I did not know that the Mayor’s Office of Ethnic & Community Media has an annual advertising spend of over $70 million. About half of that goes to 15 large media outlets, led by Meta and including Google, WABC and Univision. Greenpointers sees about $7,000 in advertising revenue from MOECM – a paltry sum compared to other non-local outlets, and it seems that comes with a quid pro quo attached (we wouldn’t expect anything less from this administration):
In a conversation with the former Executive Director José Bayona, [Greenpointers] received subtle pressure to publish weekly op-eds that MOECM sends to members of its directory. We expressed concern that not only do these not align with our hyperlocal ethos, but we feel that doing so would only make us a propaganda mouthpiece, damaging the credibility we have spent more than 15 years building in the community. Greenpointers‘ bottom line lies with the North Brooklyn area—not any specific politician or institution.
Rick Paulas, Greenpoint’s most famous author, walking tour leader and ghost hunter has (yet another) new gig.
A lot of good news on the crime front – not coincidentally coming on the heels of a competent technocrat taking over NYPD. Hopefully the Mayor (who also not coincidentally has been somewhat sidelined from meddling in police matters) doesn’t revert to meddling in police matters.
Randy Mastro – who represents New Jersey in its suit against congestion pricing – is now the First Deputy Mayor of New York City, a place that has very much benefitted from congestion pricing.
In local news, Mastro has also represented Chevron, a company whose refusal to take responsibility for its legacy pollution at Bushwick Inlet is actively delaying progress on completing the park that the City promised 20 years ago.
And, as someone pointed out online, Mastro now has the honor of having served as First Deputy Mayor for two of the worst Mayors in NYC history.
“‘The idea of taking the street dining down every year, it was just a bad idea,’ said Rob Sanfiz, Executive Director of La Nacional… on 14th Street. ‘Inevitably what will happen is that the restaurants that can afford them will have them, and the smaller ones will have more struggle.'”
One of the bright spots out of the pandemic was rethinking how we use public space. The Adamses killed that – especially for small businesses.
