Fireworks destroys Rosenwach Tanks warehouse in Williamsburg. Rosenwach makes all those great wooden water tanks you see on top of New York buildings. This can't be good. [Brooklyn 11211]
Squatters help fix up the East Village's beloved, but violation-laden Ray's Candy Shop. [The Villager]
The Food Emporium in Union Square is a lousy, cheating scofflaw. [Restless]
Joe Jr.'s—the gutting begins. [EV Grieve]
Di Fara has reopened. Yeah! But hours have been cut. Aw! And slices are now $5. Hey! [Grub Street]
More anti-bike propaganda, because, you know, car drivers are totally innocent of having destroyed the planet, and brake for puppies and shit. [NY1]
Wait a sec, Transportation Alternatives' initiative to promote bike safety is now anti-biking propaganda? The article doesn't even mention cars, just pedestrians. Biking with traffic is safer for all parties.
ReplyDeleteI also find it amusing that you called Janette Sadik-Khan "the Bozo transportation commissioner" in your post last week. So is she bozo for pushing for more bike lanes and a pedestrian friendly city? Or is she just bozo because she works for he-that-shall-not-be-named? Perhaps the Times Square "plaza" isn't so great, but more bike lanes and more fully-realized public plazas (in the works across the five boroughs) and days without cars on streets (e.g. Summer Streets on Park Avenue in August) are pretty great ideas. And luckily we have a DOT commissioner who isn't just listening to the complaints of cabbies and other car drivers.
But wait, looking back, your "Quote of the Day" was from a cab driver. But I thought cab drivers "are totally innocent of having destroyed the planet, and brake for puppies and shit." So which is it? Are cabbies the voice of reason or the ones ruining the world? Or both (depending on the needs of your rant)?
Not the initiative, ExV, the slant of the article. And one can agree with one policy of a public official, and disagree with another. Or must I be wholly pro-Sadik-Khan or wholly anti-Sadik-Khan to be taken seriously in your book?
ReplyDeleteSlight correction: The building is the scofflaw, not the Food Emporium.
ReplyDeleteBrooks,
ReplyDeleteYour logic is Palin-esque.
What in god's name do you mean by, "Must I be wholly pro-Sadik-Khan or wholly anti-Sadik-Khan to be taken seriously in your book"? You're the one who called her a "Bozo," which implies that she's laughably incompetent, and that you utterly disapprove of her work. Is there some nuance to the word "Bozo" that I'd never realized existed? Please advise.
I still don't see how that article was anti-biking propaganda. In fact, I think the more the City or advocacy groups push bicycling safety, the better.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course one can disagree with policies of public officials. However, saying someone is a "Bozo" doesn't make it sound like you have a problem with a specific policy, but with the person in general.
Still, using a rant from a cabbie advocating for cars as a vehicle (pun intended) for your vitriol against Bloomberg and then a few days later referring to cabbies as planet destoyers doesn't seem to make sense.
Or I suppose you don't have to be wholly pro-cabbie or wholly anti-cabbie....
Lord Almighty, but the articles are right—nothing gets tempers flared up with the bike lane issue!
ReplyDeleteMichael Palin? Gee, thanks!
ReplyDeleteI used the term "Bozo" in reference to her comment that the new lawn-chair Times Square ("Bloomberg Beach," etc.) was a "Picasso" in the making. For such a comment, a person deserves to be called a Bozo.
Obviously, I feel somewhat differently about the plans for bike lanes.
I'm sorry, is this new? For centuries, newspapers and other media have lauded politicians for some things, and then reviled them for others. What is confusing you guys about this?
"I'm sorry, is this new? For centuries, newspapers and other media have lauded politicians for some things, and then reviled them for others. What is confusing you guys about this?"
ReplyDeleteYes Brooks, you're right. Why, practically every week Katie Couric calls President Obama a Bozo, a moron, a blockhead, an imbecile, a mental defective, an asshat, a halfwit, or a lamebrain on the CBS Evening News. Because that's exactly the kind of thing people in the media do when they disagree with some of the policies of a public official.
Sure, happens all the time. Thanks for enlightening me.
And by the way, don't call me a "guy." Even though I'm tall, middle-aged, and have a booming, husky voice, I'm all woman. Thanks.