Good Riddance to Bad Rubble?

The big ugly yellow building is gone at last! Thanks to E.V. Grieve for the photos from above. From the ground, it looked like the end of an error.

Alas, the Great Wall that is slated to take its place looks like something out of a horror movie.

Sheldon Silver Gives Away the Store on Rent Regs.

He seriously sent me an email touting this gawdawful deal on rent regs.

I wrote him back that it had to be some sort of joke. 2500 is the threshold or 200K income? Not indexed?

I told him the message to anyone who works for him was that they should move. Maybe he'll be able to get recent immigrants sleeping in shifts to staff his office.

Democrats... NOW FIVE PER CENT BETTER THAN REPUBLICANS!

Mourning for demolition of history 35 Cooper Square

I was there yesterday. A rather somber gathering, and speakers vowing to preserve and landmark the rest of the Bowery, invoking its history.

Nice report here. Scroll down to see my hand holding an artwork sign showing the block before the bulldozers.

Sad we don't have a proper landmark review process in the city. I'm not for halting all development. In many cases, the historic sites can be integrated and repurposed. It's about keeping a sense of history and character, valuing what the past leaves us, not about stopping time.

We move toward a city that attracts people without keeping what attracted them here to begin with.