August 13 - By Azi Paybarah in Manhattan, Jimmy Vielkind in Albany, and Mike Allen in Washington, D.C. SPOTTED at Gracie Mansion last night for the DNCNYC BBQ, hosted by Mayor Blasio: Alan Patricof, David Kovner, Robert Zimmerman, Cynthia Nixon, Stuart Appelbaum, Ruben Diaz Jr., Karen Keogh, Suri Kasirer, Fred Dixon and Kathy Hochul. Along with frankfurters, fried chicken and corn muffin were cupcakes that said “NYC.” -- MAYOR’S DNC PITCH: RIDE OUR TRAINS -- Capital’s Gloria Pazmino: “De Blasio touted the city’s ‘vast’ public transportation offerings as yet another reason why the 2016 Democratic convention should be held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. ‘We just had a lovely 25-minute subway ride from Rockefeller Center,’ … he said at a press conference in the Barclays Plaza on the second day of a tour with party officials. ‘[We] had great conversations along the way, about everything that New York City is … able to do to win this convention and make sure it’s a great convention for the Democratic Party.’” bit.ly/1oJ188T --QUOTE OF DAY: “We learned a lot from the mistakes of 2004.” -- Bill de Blasio, on hosting political conventions. goo.gl/Zee2vd --“De Blasio: Democratic National Convention in Brooklyn will mean a lot of money flowing,” by Newsday’s Emily Ngo: “The disruption to everyday commuters and residents during the summer of 2016 would be ‘limited and brief,’ … de Blasio said … The event would bring more than 30,000 attendees to the city, many of whom would stay in Manhattan hotels and travel to Brooklyns Barclays Center … via traffic lanes, shuttles and ferries dedicated to the convention … de Blasio said the presidential nominating convention would likely take place in July or August, when more residents are on vacation, and the major events would likely occur over four nights.” nwsdy.li/1sU15bf CUOMO ARRIVES IN ISRAEL THIS AM -- Capital’s Laura Nahmias: “After three years as a proudly close-to-home governor who never left the country and rarely left the state, … Cuomo [is] traveling with a contingent of reporters … [T]he governor and his contingent—which includes Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and the co-leaders of the State Senate, Dean Skelos and Jeff Klein—[will meet] with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and president Reuven Rivlin, along with … talk[s] to New York students and others. “Cuomo last visited Israel in 2002, when he was aggressively courting Jewish voters for what he had hoped would be a tough primary against H. Carl McCall. … Cuomo … has little immediate need to court Jewish voters now. … Mario Cuomo went in 1992, saying he understood the significance of the Golan Heights, but … ‘I want to stand there and look at it myself.’ … On Tuesday, Cuomo shrugged off a request from Palestinian officials to visit the occupied territories, saying there is ‘not a lot of flexibility’ on his 30-hour trip. … “Cuomos portion of the trip would be paid for with his campaign funds, not state money. … His opponent, Westchester county executive Rob Astorino … has preemptively praised the show of support for Israel … But the timing may also be fortuitous for Cuomo, from a local-news perspective.” bit.ly/1uNWSWd MURRAY WEISS on DNAInfo, “De Blasio Would Dump Bratton in Showdown with Sharpton, Sources Say”: “De Blasio was sent to Gracie Mansion last November riding a tidal wave of an anti-NYPD sentiment fueled largely by skyrocketing stop-and-frisks and quality-of-life arrests under the Bloomberg administration. … Sharpton commands a constituency that is more aligned with de Blasio’s voting pool than Bratton does.” dnain.fo/1nOdE1x SQUEEGEE WARS -- “Just released from jail, squeegee man says New York Post put him out of business,” by Animal New York’s Amy K. Nelson: “Two days [after he was featured on the Post’s alarmist cover, 40-yearold Gregg] Washington was arrested — which, conveniently, the tabloid captured — for what the paper said was the 225th time. ANIMAL ran into him … Tuesday morning, just hours after he was released from Rikers Island. He said he was sentenced to five days for criminal nuisance and drinking in public. Washington said he’s done squeegeeing. ‘No, I can’t,’ he said, ‘I just went to jail.’” bit.ly/1lTF5HD HAMPTONS REPORT -- “Tina Brown Lists Beachfront Manse in Hamptons,” by Variety’s Mark David:“A kind snitch in the Hamptons sent word … that the … media maven … has hoisted her oceanfront hideaway in the sleepy and staid community of Quogue on the open market for $11.85 million. Property records show the New York City-based … Brown and her husband, veteran journalist and Conde Nast Traveler founder Sir Harold Evans, acquired the property in the fall of 1995 for $920,000, and marketing materials reveal the 2.9-acre spread lays claim to 206 feet of ocean frontage, and has a swimming pool tucked into a scrubby sylvan setting on the front side of the house.” CHECK YOUR CITI BIKE SEAT -- “Cracked Citi Bike Seats Leave Riders Pants Soaked After Storms, Users Say,” by DNAinfo’s Irene Plagianos: “Cracks on the seats of the shared blue bikes are becoming more prevalent, regular riders say — which creates a nuisance when rain seeps into the fissures and the seats stay soggy for days after a storm. … BikeshareNYC, a blog about Citi Bike, recently surveyed 24 bike stations in the Financial District and Battery Park City and found that [68%] of the docked bikes they checked … had cracked seats.” dnain.fo/1mIjTV7 THE SUBWAY SHOW -- Capital’s Azi Paybarah: Subway performers say the NYPD isn’t following the MTA’s stated rules allowing them to sing, dance and play music on platforms and mezzanines, forcing some of them to take their acts inside the subway cars. “If it were safe to legally perform on the platform, we might well not have people in the trains,” said Matthew Christian, founder of BUSK NY, which supports ‘arts advocacy in the NYC subway. “I think we were expecting something better from de Blasio definitely,” Christian said. bit.ly/1AbRTSd --“Working Families Party opposing Bill de Blasios proposed horse carriage ban” by News Celeste Katz: “The influential party staked out its position in a letter to City Council members — a rare instance of a key de Blasio ally opposing him on one of his signature issues. … Wavering Council members, for example, will now have the cover of the party’s position to buck the mayor. The mayor is ‘absolutely in a bind,’ one insider said.” goo.gl/IEcbFr SCHNEIDERMAN PROBING HYNES -- News’ Reuven Blau: “The states top lawman has empaneled a grand jury to probe possible criminal charges against former Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes and some of his office staff, the Daily News has learned. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has convened the grand jury in Brooklyn Supreme Court, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.” goo.gl/Q3YRKP “MYSTERY SOLVED?” – Times A1, “Brooklyn Bridge’s White Flags: Art, It Seems, Not a Surrender” – “Critic’s Notebook” by Michael Kimmelman (online: (“German Artists Say They Put White Flags on Brooklyn Bridge”): “I got a call this week from a pair of artists in Berlin who say they were the ones who pulled off the stunt of the summer, hoisting two big all-white American flags atop the Brooklyn Bridge last month, swapping them for the usual Stars and Stripes.…[T]he artists, Mischa Leinkauf and Matthias Wermke, say … [t]hey only wanted to celebrate ‘the beauty of public space’ and the great American bridge whose German-born engineer, John Roebling, died in 1869 on July 22, the day the white flags appeared … “They volunteered that the flag project transpired roughly between 3 and 5 a.m. on July 22. They said they carried the white flags in backpacks up the climbing cables that workers and the police use to reach the towers, and did not see security cameras. …They had made the flags themselves, they said, spending more than a week hand-sewing them with two kinds of white fabric, alternating the fabrics to make stripes, cutting out holes for the stars from one fabric and filling them in with the other.” nyti.ms/1lTlSFS REMEMBERING LAUREN BACALL -- Bronx-born actrss -- NY1: “In a 2005 interview on ‘Larry King Live,’ Bacall recalled getting her start on Broadway in a show called ‘Johnny Two by Four’ on the subway circuit, which went to Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx. Bacall became famous during the ‘Golden Age of Hollywood,’ especially known for her husky voice and looks. “She starred alongside Humphrey Bogart in several films, including The Big Sleep, To Have and To Have Not and Key Largo. She was married to Bogart from 1945 until he died in 1957. She earned her only Oscar nomination for her work in the 1996 film ‘The Mirror Has Two Faces.’ Bacall also appeared on stage, winning Tonys for ‘Applause’ and ‘Woman of the Year.’ goo.gl/rBRKEF LG DUFFY FINDS A TWITTER VOICE—Gannett’s Joe Spector: On Twitter, Lieutenant Governor Robert Duffy has joked about the marriage of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, blasted Jon Bon Jovis potential purchase of the Buffalo Bills and offered witty responses to reporters questions. In an era of tightly controlled political messages, including in the Cuomo administration, Duffy has found a new voice on Twitter—giving him a following among the public, the news media and politicians.” on.rocne.ws/1sPl7lu --“New York State Governments Are One of the Most Frequent Requesters of Twitter Account Information in the World” by Village Voice’s Tessa Stuart: “The number of requests Twitter has received from governments around the world has increased 142% since the company began keeping track in 2012. In the first six months of that year, they received 849 requests. In the last six months of 2014 (January to June), Twitter received 2,058 requests. “Most of those requests--1257 requests for information on 1,918 accounts--originated in the United States. Among those, governments in New York state submitted 123 requests in last six months alone. (Only California requested more, with 163.) If New York were its own country it would still come in fourth on a list of the top five most frequent requesters, just behind Saudi Arabia and Japan and, I guess, California if in this scenario it was also its own country.” goo.gl/Lkxvjq CONNECTING THE STOPS AND SHOOTINGS -- Capital’s Azi Paybarah: Police commissioner Bill Bratton said Tuesday he doubts whether the administration will ever be able to determine if the number of shootings in New York City is related to changes in public-safety policy implemented by de Blasio. During an interview on WNYC, host Brian Lehrer asked Bratton about “an uptick in shootings, at the same time that you’re saying fewer guns are being taken off the street as a result of stop-and-frisk reforms. No connection?” “I’m sorry, we don’t know if there’s that connection at all, and I don’t think we ever will know that connectivity,” Bratton said. He went on to say there have been more shootings so far this year than last year, but noted it’s still the second-fewest shootings in history. bit.ly/1sP2vC3 LINKING CASES -- Iris Baez, on CNN: “Although details are still emerging in this most recent tragedy, we know an officer repeatedly shot and killed an unarmed 18-year-old black man, Michael Brown, in a St. Louis suburb last weekend -- less than two days before he was scheduled to attend college. Last month, Eric Garner, another unarmed black man, died from an illegal police chokehold during an encounter on Staten Island, New York. Nearly 20 years ago, my son Anthony Baez also died in an illegal police chokehold. ...These cases and many more reveal our countrys systemic criminalization and devaluing of black and brown lives.” goo.gl/hrb3mG BOOSTING BDB’S HOUSING PLAN -- The Times’ editorial page backs the mayor’s call for new buildings at Brooklyn Bridge Park to have at least 30 percent of units set aside for moderate- and middle-income residents. “Brooklyn Bridge Park can sustain itself through its public-private model and still have some affordable units built on its edges.” goo.gl/HNlXzn RATTLING BDB’S HOSPITAL PLAN -- WSJ’s Laura Kusisto: “The blow of losing a full-service hospital in the heart of brownstone Brooklyn was eased in part by the expectation the Long Island College Hospital site would host new, affordable apartments in one of the boroughs priciest neighborhoods. But Ron Moelis, a principal at L+M Development Partners, who was presented as an affordable-housing developer for the project led by Fortis Property Group, said he had withdrawn from the venture, raising questions about the likelihood lower-cost housing would be included at the site.” -- Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams: In my opinion its a deal killer not to have affordable housing, goo.gl/n3Hkoq TRUMP SUES NEW YORK— Capital’s Jimmy Vielkind: Donald Trump is suing the state entity charged with policing the ethical conduct of state employees, saying it has improperly sat on a complaint he filed last year against Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. … Trumps lawsuit … says it has been 240 days since he filed the JCOPE complaint and there has been no communication. “Upon information and belief, as of the date hereof, the Commission has never even voted on the complaint,” Trump asserts in the complaint. “Indeed, as of the date hereof, the commission has never even confirmed in writing to the Trump Parties that it received the complaint, though it is undisputed that the commission did.” bit.ly/1oI8WTm TALKER -- “In Upper West Side Playground Fight, It’s Parents vs. Parents,” by NYT’s Lisa W. Foderaro: “Most playground brawls take place on, well, a playground.Not the one that has unfolded over the past year at Public School 166 and in the surrounding Upper West Side neighborhood. … The 0.4-acre playground, on West 89th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues, features an amphitheater with a sloping perimeter of Belgian blocks that dates to the 1960s adventure-playground era. … “Administrators at P.S. 166 and members of the Parent Teacher Association have pushed for a renovation, saying that over the years, children have sustained concussions, chipped their teeth and suffered broken bones there. … But a group of parents and sympathetic neighbors who call themselves Friends of Playground 89 say that the renovation, first proposed in early 2012 and budgeted at $950,000, would destroy an architectural gem and a prime example of the adventure-playground movement.” nyti.ms/1rpOc5Q FLACKS WIN: “The salary gap between public relations specialists and news reporters has widened over the past decade—to almost $20,000 a year, according to 2013 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data analyzed by the Pew Research Center. At the same time, the public relations field has expanded to a degree that these specialists now outnumber reporters by nearly 5-to-1 (B.L.S. data include part-time and full-time employees, but not self-employed.)” politi.co/1ytAKkf THE TALK OF WALL STREET -- “Obama Donors Embrace Corporate Inversions Even as He Slams Deals,” by Bloomberg’s Richard Rubin and Annie Linskey: “Obama has been bashing companies that pursue offshore mergers to reduce taxes. He hasn’t talked about the people behind the deals -- some of whom are his biggest donors. Executives, advisers and directors involved in some of the tax-cutting transactions include Blair Effron, an investment banker who hosted Obama for a May fundraiser at his … 9,000-square-foot apartment on [the] Upper East Side. “Others are Jim Rogers, co-chairman of the host committee for the 2012 Democratic National Convention; Roger Altman, a former senior Treasury Department official who raised at least $200,000 for Obama’s re-election campaign; and Shantanu Narayen, who sits on the president’s management advisory board.” bloom.bg/1pqF8zz CAPITAL Magazine -- Friday is the ad deadline for the September issue: Capital magazine, the Technology Issue, will be out Aug. 25, with Sarah Laskow on the mainstreaming of a local start-up, Dan Goldberg on New York hospitals digital-age security challenges, and Ryan Hutchins on Cornell Tech’s big campus plans for Roosevelt Island. For information on how to activate Capital’s influential audience of New York thought leaders and decision makers across government, industry and the media, please connect with Chris Falls at advertising@capitalnewyork, or 646-493-2962. The deadline for inclusion in the September issue is Friday. #UpstateAmerica: “Amtrak service west and north of Rensselaer came to a halt Tuesday afternoon after a runaway bulldozer burst into flames and traveled along the single track connecting Albany and Schenectady.” bit.ly/Vh9CIo
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 14:19:03 +0000
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