[Photo courtesy of robby-T/GL Flickr Pool]

Gowanus industry, taken close to where the photographer lives.

This comes from Democracy for NYC:

Did You Get a RoboCall from an Insurance Co. Against Obama Healthcare Reforms?

President-Elect Obama has said that he wants to end the $11 billion corporate welfare subsidy - passed by the Bush Administration - to private companies that provide Medicare through Medicare Advantage. These companies cherry-pick the best patients and have been making record profits. While Medicare Advantage was designed to reduce costs through competition, this has not worked; a Georgetown University study found the cost to taxpayers of treating patients through this program increased in 2007.

Join us at Linkup [tonight] (Wed) to discuss this and other healthcare reforms being proposed in Washington this year...

Robocalls:

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From Boba Singh's flickr stream, an artist in Berlin. Here is their website: vizifada.de

Atlantic Yards Report

If you ever wanted to know what Norman Oder does for fun, check out his the audio of a fantasy interview with Nets CEO Brett Yormark:

A good salesman always sound convincing, even if underlying facts change the spiel, and New Jersey Nets CEO Brett Yormark is at the top of the game.

In three radio or TV interviews over less than 15 months, Yormark offered unwavering predictions about the opening date of the Atlantic Yards arena (aka Barclays Center) in Brooklyn. First, he said 2009, then 2010, then 2011.

Just take a listen to this one-minute audio file. I’ve interpolated my own questions into the remix, but the original quotes come from the interviews transcribed below.

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Atlantic Yards Report

Norman Oder continues the stockwatch of Atlantic Yards overdeveloper Forest City Enterprises:

Yesterday, the stock rose $1.87 to $8.49, a 28.25% rise. Four other firms in the property management sector rose (nearly) 15% or more.

Forest City stock began to rise after noon. Perhaps not coincidentally, the developer issued a press release stating that the Forest City-New East Baltimore Partnership had a new tenant at the Science + Technology Park at Johns Hopkins: the Brain Sciences Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

But a deal to occupy 25,000 square feet of office space isn't enough to move the market that much. Perhaps some institutional investors were making decisions.

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FIPS posted undercover footage of empty asiles at the Target in Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Terminal Mall.

This is part one of our four part series in which we attempt to uncover, once and for all, why the hell Target at the Atlantic Center Mall sucks a big dick.

We double dawg dare you to try to conjure up a more poorly run, haphazardly stocked, woefully understaffed shit show of a retail establishment...a-n-y-w-h-e-r-e.

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NoLandGrab: Actually, back in the day, we can remember bodegas in the Lower East Side that never seem to have anything on the shelves, save one or two small boxes of laundry detergent.

Early New Year's Day in the Fruitvale District of Oakland, BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) police murdered unarmed, 22 -year old, Oscar Grant III by pushing him face down to the ground and shooting him in the back.

The deal is done. Malcolm Smith will become the new Senate Majority Leader tomorrow:

The Senate leadership deal is officially done, and Queens Democrat Malcolm Smith has finally landed the 32 votes he needs to be majority leader of the Senate, putting the chamber back into Democratic hands for the first time in 43 years.

Flanked by members of his conference - including all of the Gang of Three - who marched from Sen. Carl Kruger's office in the LOB to the Capitol to join their fellow Democrats, Smith announced his victory.

Smith confirmed the details of the deal between himself and the three erstwhile renegades that have been reported throughout the day.

In short:

- Kruger, who ducked out without speaking to reporters, will chair the Finance Committee ($34,000 lu-lu), which Smith said does have a budget of between $5 million and $6 million. Sen. Liz Krueger will be vice chair of that committee (that's a new position, and so has no existing lu-lu; she's also chair of Select Committee on Budget Reform).

- Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. will chair the Aging Committe ($12,500 lu-lu), and also will head a new Latino Task Force.

- Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. will chair the Housing Committee ($12,500 lu-lu) and will also serve as vice chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, the most powerful committee in the Senate, (Smith is the chairman) and president of the Senate for Urban Policy.

From a release just sent from the next Senate Majority Leader:

The Senate Democratic Conference emerged from their meeting tonight with the announcement that Senate Democratic Leader Malcolm A. Smith will serve as Senate Majority Leader, securing a Democratic Majority for the first time in 43 years.

Under the leadership of Senator Smith, the Senate will move New York in a new direction, taking steps to create a more open, accountable and inclusive legislative process.

"We are one Senate, united behind the common purpose of getting New York back on track and creating a government that operates in a more efficient and transparent manner to meet the needs of all New Yorkers," said Senator Smith.

At the meeting, the Democratic Conference solidified its commitment to reform the Senate into a more functional legislative body that allows good ideas to be openly debated by all members.

"Through the appointment of committee chairs with real standing and duties and a comprehensive review of the Senate's rules of procedure, we will restore the Senate's ability to achieve the peoples' agenda," said Senator Smith.

"In the face of the worst fiscal crisis since the Great Depression, the new Democratic Majority will work with the Governor and all of our legislative colleagues to revive the economy through job creation and economic development," said Senator Smith.

And there it is. It's going to be a very interesting session.

I've greatly enjoyed a much needed vacation from regular posting, but posting will be back to normal as of tomorrow morning.

It's put up or shut up time for Dems in Albany. I plan to be all over it. I hope you will be, too.

Stay tuned...

With all the talk of a Federal Stimulus package that President-elect Obama wants to sign as soon as possible, we here in the Mohawk Valley should be thinking about how we can stimulate our own economy.  At the federal level Obama has mentioned that a large component of his stimulus package will involve environmental, and more specifically energy efficiency, measures. If he holds true to his word, the idea is that by retrofitting existing government buildings to be more energy efficient (we have a lot of schools, municipal buildings, fire halls, etc.), we can:

1. Save money in the long run.  The investments made by the federal government in energy efficiency at the local level come to our municipalities at no cost and allow the local governments to have lower energy costs in the future, which means that we would be able to lower taxes in the future which will help attract new businesses to the area.

2. Create local jobs.  A whole new sector will be created  in the local economy if we dedicate our grants from a federal stimulus package towards retrofitting our buildings. This will create jobs at all levels as companies will need to hire new employees to conduct the actual labor as well as administrative positions necessary to oversee the projects.

The former benefits will come to us through federal money if we are able to secure grants from the stimulus package and are not left out of the federal governments "areas to stimulate".  But even if we do not receive federal money for energy efficiency measures, one local municipality, coupled with a local employer, already have a pilot project in place that could provide a large boost to the local economy.

The Village of Ilion this past September installed 30 LED street lights on Barringer Road. These new lights provide a 50% energy saving over their traditional counterparts, last ten years instead of three, and give off a brighter light as opposed to the unnatural orange glow that we have all become so accustom to.  The best part about these new lights is not the energy savings, which of course can and should be passed on to the tax payers, but the fact that they were manufactured by Fiberdyne Energy located in Frankfort.

This means that the Village of Ilion is now experiencing energy savings through the purchase of equipment that was manufactured in Frankfort.  Now if we were able to have all of the local municipalities in the area to begin the process of installing these new street lights, we would not only be directly investing in lower future taxes, but also creating new manufacturing jobs right here in the Mohawk Valley.  This is a win-win deal for everyone involved.  We are constantly bombarded with images of our politicians handing out money to companies promising to create new jobs, with mixed results, but if our local municipalities were to install these new lights they would directly be creating new local jobs that would give their constituents employment and provide energy savings for the municipality, thus meaning that our local governments would actually get something other than the promise of new jobs for their investment.

It is this kind of innovative thinking that we need to see more of in these hard economic times. There is a lot to be said about putting more money into the economy and giving people jobs, but if that money does not provide results then we have just thrown our money away on a temporary fix.  The best part of this plan is that it does not even involve a governmental entity larger than our local governments, which, if able to come together and act upon this idea, would provide a brighter future for the Mohawk Valley.

Atlantic Yards Report

A reader reminds me that I didn't read all the fine print before posting today on the future of Atlantic Yards in 2009. After all, a state document sets up December 19, 2009 as a decision date--but maybe not a final one.

Target: December 19

The State Funding Agreement, as I wrote last March, sets up an "Effective Date," defined as when litigation... shall have been sufficiently concluded so as to permit such financing and construction to proceed.... [and] ESDC has acquired and delivered vacant possession of the Project Site.

That could take a while, especially if George Locker's timetable moves litigation into 2010.

If the Effective Date does not occur prior to December 19, 2009 and Forest City Ratner fails to pursue or cooperate in the site litigation or take "reasonable steps, (including advancing design work and other predevelopment activities)" in furtherance of the project, it "will be deemed abandoned," and the ESDC will get its money back.

Is that likely? I'm not so sure.

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