New York Times copycats George The Atheist blog mascot

From the front page of their weekly Sunday Review section of November 8, 2020:

It's actually a good take on Trump's exit, with him waving at the abyss.

Why were these emails kept under wraps for so long?

From the NY Times:

...in nearly 350 pages of emails obtained by The New York Times as part of a Freedom of Information request, it was clear that Mr. Howe had entree to the top levels of Mr. Cuomo’s administration — a period that included the years and months leading up to the news of the federal investigation.

The Cuomo administration had fought against releasing the emails for two years, spending more than $200,000 to hire outside counsel — Greenberg Traurig, a loyal Cuomo campaign donor — after The Times went to court seeking the documents. A state judge last year ruled against the administration, and ordered that the documents be released; the state appealed the ruling, but subsequently agreed to a settlement that allowed for the emails’ release.

The emails showed how Mr. Howe used his access to gain help for clients.

Why we can't get any major MTA projects done

Great expose in the NY Times:

An accountant discovered the discrepancy while reviewing the budget for new train platforms under Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan.

The budget showed that 900 workers were being paid to dig caverns for the platforms as part of a 3.5-mile tunnel connecting the historic station to the Long Island Rail Road. But the accountant could only identify about 700 jobs that needed to be done, according to three project supervisors. Officials could not find any reason for the other 200 people to be there.

“Nobody knew what those people were doing, if they were doing anything,” said Michael Horodniceanu, who was then the head of construction at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs transit in New York. The workers were laid off, Mr. Horodniceanu said, but no one figured out how long they had been employed. “All we knew is they were each being paid about $1,000 every day.”

The discovery, which occurred in 2010 and was not disclosed to the public, illustrates one of the main issues that has helped lead to the increasing delays now tormenting millions of subway riders every day: The leaders entrusted to expand New York’s regional transit network have paid the highest construction costs in the world, spending billions of dollars that could have been used to fix existing subway tunnels, tracks, trains and signals.

Yes, we know

The NY Times is obsessed with the new US Open facilities:

Things were noticeably coming together. Promotional banners with big fuzzy tennis balls were hung on every post along the wooden-planked bridge from the subway stop to the tennis center. Construction workers were putting together a baggage-check area, and inside the grounds, larger banners, featuring tennis champions, past and present, had gone up. (It takes eight people to install the banners, Mr. Zausner said.)

Inside Ashe Stadium, Ashley Devolder, 26, from nearby Astoria, painted a fresh coat of blue on a wall near the players’ entrance and media center. Before this task, she said, she had been part of a team of 20 who freshened up the 34,000 armrests on the stadium’s seats. “We had to sand them, clean them, and paint them,” she said. “It took a week.”

Outside Ashe, rubble was removed and replaced by either grass or smooth asphalt. Lights were strung at the patio of Mojito, one of the Open’s sit-down restaurants, and a new bar had been built around one of eight hard-to-miss bright blue bases that support the new roof structure (Mr. Zausner’s idea). The main plaza was cleaned up, trees were replanted and colorful flowers were in place at the entrance.

Bye, bye, NY Times?

From the Queens Tribune:

The New York Times Company may be looking to buy out its lease on the 500,386 sq. ft. printing facility in College Point, according to sources close to the negotiations.

Prior to the construction of the nationally distributed newspaper’s current headquarters at 620 Eighth Ave. in Manhattan, both corporate and printing operations were housed in its Times Square facility, until 1992, when the Times announced plans to lease the 31-acre property from the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

As part of a 35-year lease agreement, the City and State granted tax incentives, reduced energy costs and other benefits worth a total of $29 million, according to the Times.

Queens is where yuppies want to be!

Another "Queens is the new Brooklyn" article from the NY Times featuring pretentious a-holes who wish they could afford Manhattan, but won't admit it:

“I was vehemently opposed to moving to Queens,” said Mr. Anker, a life coach who arrived with his family to Parker Towers in May, renting a renovated $3,600-a-month three-bedroom, two-bath with a balcony. “Now, I couldn’t love it any more if you paid me.”

In October, the monthly rent for two-bedrooms in Long Island City was $3,831 and in Astoria, $2,610. But, brokers and developers say, more newcomers are considering those areas as destinations in their own right.

“There is less of a conversation around, ‘I can’t afford anything else,’ ” said Rachel Loeb, a development director for World Wide Group. “It’s now a neighborhood of choice.”

Uh huh.

The NY Times thinks Ridgewood is hot... for the 500th time

Several people have forwarded this article, the NY Times' "Ridgewood is the new Brooklyn" story. I originally ignored it because I thought it was an old article. It pretty much is one that was recycled from earlier this year, and last year, and the year before that. (And previously the "next Brooklyns" were LIC and Astoria.)

What can I say about this? The Times fawns over the newbies, mainly because those invading Ridgewood today are not the same working class people that had been moving in since the early 20th century. Instead, these are people who whine that housing is becoming unaffordable, yet seem to have plenty of money to patronize bars and restaurants that are opening up on every corner posthaste. Maybe if they were a little more disciplined in how they spend their money, they wouldn't have to use their well-off parents back in Michigan as ATMs (of course the article fails to mention that). What gets me is that there seems to be an unlimited supply of these dweebs, as well as their clueless parents, and they actually think of themselves as "artists".

They priced out many people who grew up in the area, and the actual artists that were here before them, as well as first generation immigrants struggling to make it, so they deserve no sympathy. All they do is leave a path of destruction behind them as they pass through. As Curbed put it, "Congratulations, Ridgewood. Enjoy all the construction."

Personally, I am getting tired of these post-college arrested development cases. Normal people finish their studies, grow up, start careers and families, try to make it on their own and are not hanging out at warehouses-turned-clubs every night and sitting in coffee shops with laptops all day playing the part of developer bait. The biggest crisis these folks seem to face is when the food they order on Seamless takes an hour to arrive and the ketchup is missing. If your main obsession in life is brunch, it's a safe bet that you have way too much free time on your hands. Volunteerism and sacrifice are foreign words to most of this set. When will they come to realize that their frivolous behavior is going to ultimately drive them to their own exodus?

My advice to them, not that they'll take it: Stop walking around acting like you're not only entitled, but smarter than everyone else because you drink craft beer. You live in f*cking Ridgewood. Get over yourselves.

Rant over.

Predictable article from NY Times doesn't say much about South Ozone Park

From the NY Times:

On a recent Saturday afternoon I set out to explore South Ozone Park in Queens, in particular a stretch whose racial composition — according to recent census data, about a quarter white, a quarter Asian, 10 percent black and 11 percent biracial, with 30 percent of residents belonging to the statistical category of “other” — makes it one of the three most diverse patches of the city. Ethnically, too, it contains multitudes: Dominicans and Puerto Ricans live alongside Ecuadoreans, Indians, Pakistanis, Chinese and people who look as though they might be cast in the production of anything succumbing to Italian-American caricature.

What had prompted my visit was, in a sense, a tourist’s curiosity about how integration of this kind might actually be lived and how, in the midst of a mayoral race, political conceptions in such a place might be evolving.

There were instances of inspiration to be found, encounters with a New York of one’s gorgeous mosaic fantasies. A barbershop called E Place, owned by an Uzbek immigrant named Eric Dzhuray, caters to Trinidadians and Guyanese — who make up a considerable share of the community in South Ozone Park — and at least one young white suburbanite who had grown so devoted to the shop when he lived in neighboring Howard Beach that he continued his patronage even though he had married and moved to Long Island.

The fact that a catering hall called La Bella Vita, owned by a man named Tony Modica and steeped in Pompeii aesthetics, was full of black patrons on the day I wandered in suggested that a certain kind of social progress had been made since the divisive days of Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing,” two decades ago.

Both the barbershop and catering hall were to be found on Rockaway Boulevard, the primary commercial thoroughfare in South Ozone Park. Though it seemed as if it should be a busy place, full of pedestrian traffic and businesses servicing varied cultural interests, it has the bloodless feel of a Sun Belt village lost to misbegotten visions. The area itself is not poor; in the particular census tract I was visiting, median family income stands at $63,000 a year, above the figure for the city on the whole. But whatever vitality the demographics might suggest is so obviously lacking that one longtime resident mentioned that he hoped simply for a McDonald’s to energize the slackened mood.

So NY Times reporters are now recording in print that they consider themselves tourists who check out census stats before heading out to the far reaches of Queens where they are prepared to have orgasms over the vibrant! diverse! mix of cultures found here. When are they going to get some new shtick already? If you can make it through the rest of this dreck, you'll see that the conclusion made by the author is that casinos bring bad things to neighborhoods. Which may be true, but this particular neighborhood had plenty of pawn shops before Resorts World moved in. And now onto some real news...

From CBS New York:

The New York State casino expansion bill being negotiated behind closed doors included a new provision Saturday, which would expand gambling even if voters reject the proposal to build more casinos.

A copy of the revised bill obtained Saturday by The Associated Press includes a provision that would authorize video slot machine centers in the outer boroughs of New York City, and as many as three or four places upstate. The bill provides for the video slot casinos with up to 5,000 machines at each center.

Previously, New York State Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) said discussions for the casino plan included a proposal for video slot machines run by off-track betting agencies in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Hours after refusing to discuss the bill, Gov. Andrew Cuomo confirmed his proposal through a spokeswoman.

“If the casino referendum fails, we will propose offering more high-end (video slot machines) to combat the loss of revenue to neighboring states and secure new funding for our schools,” said Cuomo spokeswoman Melissa DeRosa.

Transformer explosion at NY Times printing plant

"At approximately 2:30 am, there appears to have been an electrical fire at the New York Times plant. Fire lit up the sky as cars drove along the neighboring Whitestone expressway. Several fire trucks were on the scene by 2:45 am. ... Can we find out more? Why did this happen? Lights dimmed in the nearby Mitchell Gardens buildings." - Anonymous #1

"My next door neighbor said he heard a grinding noise around 2 a.m. which was followed by an electric explosion, as he described it. There was a lot of black smoke and flames. He called 911 and the operator didn't know where the NY Times printing plant was located! However, fire engines arrived a short time later and extinguished the flames, according to my source.  I could see some damage to the building earlier today but it didn't look as bad as what was described to me. I observed there were a lot more vehicles parked near the front of the complex than usual. For a while, 2 fire trucks were parked out front as well.  I just checked and the printing plant is lit up and I'm assuming they're spitting out Sunday's Times as we speak." - Anonymous #2

After a little bit of searching, here's what I came up with:

QNS ALL HANDS 25-70 WHITESTONE EXPWY W, COMMERCIAL (NY TIMES) TRANSFORMER FIRE WITH SLIGHT EXTENSION TO BUILDING, UNDER CONTROL
— FDNY (@FDNY) June 8, 2013

NY Times is subletting space

From the NY Post:

The New York Times is downsizing, sort of. A new marketing brochure from Greiner-Maltz is pitching a sublease of 6,000 square feet of offices at the paper's 400,000-square-foot modern printing plant near LaGuardia Airport that will have its own entrance and access to the company cafeteria for $45 per foot. An additional 85,000 square feet of parking is also available for about $8 per foot.

NY Times' Queens coverage is in travel section

So the NY Times’ Metro desk is supposed to cover Queens, but they have it in their travel section.

Twice.

36 Hours? In Queens, Enough Frugal Options for a Week

36 Hours in Queens, N.Y.

OMG, everything is so exotic and ethnic there!

Times covers up Parks Dept's Heritage Field debacle

From A Walk in the Park:

The blogosphere lit up on Friday after the New York Times published an embarrassing front page above the fold story on the replacement parks as part of the building of the New Yankee Stadium. Apparently the 'Newspaper of Record' couldn't find a single person who had anything negative to say about anything. The problem is they did.

First, Field Of Schemes's Neil deMause weighed in and then Atlantic Yards Report's Norman Oder. That in turn prompted a response from one of the contributors and editor of this news site, Geoffrey Croft, to respond.

The city's vile rhetoric was not exclusive to the Times. Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe continues the administration's, "Who Are You Going To Believe, Me Or Your Lying Eyes?" campaign in comments to WNYC where he insults the South Bronx community, who for the rest of their lives, will be impacted by the actions of Mr. Benepe's boss and state legislators. The Bloomberg administration apparently thinks its not enough to cause irreparable harm but also to continue to insult the poorest community in the country.

The Yankees Win. The Yankees Win. - Geoffrey Croft

From a letter sent to Atlantic Yards Report by the author of A Walk in the Park:

The Yankee Stadium controversy has not gone down the memory hole, as the Times would have its readers believe. No, the Times has instead chosen to ignore this issue as they have done since Day One. Unfortunately for Times readers the editors never felt this was a story so is was ignored. During the Stadium and parkland approval process a Times editor famously said of the community not being aware of the impending project and initially not mobilizing opposition more quickly and strongly, "they should have known."

For Bronx residents - and for the taxpayers at large - it's not enough they will have to forever endure the impacts of this irresponsible project, apparently they will now have to continue to suffer the indignity of irresponsible coverage in the "Newspaper of Record."

According to the New York Times, everything is swell in Yankee replacement park land. I'm happy the Times reporter thought the fields looked nice, and her reporting discovered people playing on them on the first day they were open felt the same. With the enormous taxpayer funds used to build them and the delay is this really a story, much less a front-page story? Obviously not.

They chose not to report on a story that impacts some of the poorest people in the country. This is shameful, irresponsible, but unfortunately not surprising.

For the truth, read the Broken Promises report.

LIC will one day be great. Really!

Haven't we been hearing that LIC is the "next great neighborhood" and that it is "about to arrive" for the past 20 years or so? Here's one more article that says that.

That's an exciting headline photo, too, isn't it?

NY Times editorial against "slush funds"

From the NY Times:

All members of the New York City Council have long enjoyed a slush fund, an annual allowance that is supposed to go to a soup kitchen or senior center or other nonprofit social program in the district. The amount of money for each district seldom depends on need; it comes courtesy of the Council speaker, who holds the purse.

This year, Speaker Christine Quinn has $49.6 million for the so-called member items: $13 million divided equally among Council members; $16.6 million for her own items; and almost $20 million more to spread as she pleases among the Council districts. At the top of her list was Domenic Recchia, whose Coney Island-Brighton Beach district got $1.6 million to spend. The Council districts that got the least — $362,000 — are represented by Helen Foster and Larry Seabrook of the Bronx.

The system is stacked politically. Nothing breeds good will — and more votes — in the local district like a new ballpark, courtesy of the Council member. It has also been an invitation to corruption. One former Council member, Miguel Martinez, was sentenced to five years in prison, partly for stealing member item money. Mr. Seabrook is awaiting trial on charges of illegally routing his share to friends, family and himself but still gets that $362,000.

Scott Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, recently issued a report that highlights the favoritism and capriciousness of the system and calls for scrapping member items altogether. Mr. Stringer, who reportedly has mayoral ambitions, insisted that the report was not aimed at Ms. Quinn, another potential candidate. His study immediately led reporters to ask about his own member items (borough presidents get them too) — $504,000 this year. Both he and Ms. Quinn have been rightly asked how they can justify receiving campaign contributions from some of the nonprofit groups seeking these grants.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo got the State Legislature to do away with its member item pot — $170 million worth — for this year. That was a budgetary move, not a recognition of the system’s inherent corruption. Ms. Quinn has worked to make the process more transparent and to require more accountability from groups receiving the money. It is not enough. The whole tainted system should be scrapped and the money doled out openly and fairly through regular city budgets.

Spoof hits the nail on the head

From The Final Edition:

Malik Segu remembers when he couldn’t walk down his block in South Corona, Queens, without hearing someone shout, “Unclean! Unclean!” or “Hey, pizza-face, is this your foot?” But now, he says with a wide, toothless grin, such anti-leper slurs are seldom if ever uttered in this quiet, working-class neighborhood known for its large, rectangular apartment buildings and concrete-covered streets with vehicles often parked on them.

Leper restaurants, bars, bodegas and cockfighting pits line the main commercial artery of Tweed Boulevard and partially dressed old men with few remaining body parts sun themselves in their motorized wheelchairs, trading local gossip and innuendo. The city’s largest concentration of used-prosthetics stores is also found here.

Recently, trendy young people from Manhattan have begun journeying to the neighborhood to sample its exotic cuisine and vibrant nightlife.

“I love the clubs,” said Tara McFetlock, a 22-year-old bankruptcy trader from Tribeca. “There is a haunting, tragic feeling of despair and horror there unlike anything you find in Manhattan.”

Her date for the evening, Caleb Ostrowsky, 27, said he was a smug, self-satisfied foodie excited by the adventure of dining in restaurants “where on any given evening you might just find the chef’s finger in your ragout.”

Paterson to resign this week?

From Business Insider:

This past week, a rumor emerged that the New York Times is working on a huge bombshell with plans to "Spitzerize" New York governor David Paterson.

We've now heard from a single source familiar with the goings on at the Governor's office that the story will likely drop on Monday, and that the governor's resignation will follow.

We've not yet confirmed the timing of the article or the governor's future plans.

Via NY Magazine

Whitestone annexed by the Bronx

Surprise! You folks in Whitestone woke up this morning as part of a new borough. You also have migrated to the other side of Long Island Sound.

It must be true as it was printed in the paper of record.

Times endorsement of Bloomberg

The visual is quite amazing.

Dirty town names in Great Britain

In the scale of embarrassing place names, Crapstone ranks pretty high. But Britain is full of them. Some are mostly amusing, like Ugley, Essex; East Breast, in western Scotland; North Piddle, in Worcestershire; and Spanker Lane, in Derbyshire.

Others evoke images that may conflict with residents’ efforts to appear dignified when, for example, applying for jobs.

These include Crotch Crescent, Oxford; Titty Ho, Northamptonshire; Wetwang, East Yorkshire; Slutshole Lane, Norfolk; and Thong, Kent. And, in a country that delights in lavatory humor, particularly if the word “bottom” is involved, there is Pratts Bottom, in Kent, doubly cursed because “prat” is slang for buffoon.

I posted this only to point out that this article comes to you courtesy of the NY Times, a paper that refuses to mention Miss Heather's blog because of its name and on the few occasions that they decide to link to this blog, they censor its name by calling it "Queens Cr*p".