While we certainly appreciate the infusion of European tourism money, the lost-looking foreigners blocking the city's sidewalks are an unnecessary intrusion. Here are some tips for visitors on what to do, and more importantly what not to do, during your stay here. [Big Picture via City Room]

Here is a list of urban blights that can officially be blamed on Sex and the City. No. 1: "The douchification of the Meatpacking District and the West Village." [Time Out NY]

The executive producer of The Real World reveals the Brooklyn neighborhoods being eyed for the upcoming summer season. Not many surprises here, but we imagine community groups are already working themselves into a tizzy about a possible hipster invasion. [amNY]

In certain neighborhoods gangs actually boost property values. [Curbed]

Harrah's Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City unleashed a bevy of scantily clad women on Wall Street this morning to distribute keys to free hotel rooms. Klassy with a capitol K. [Eater]

Once again the Empire State Building is refusing to pick sides for the upcoming Subway Series. [Gothamist]

A look at six New York City homes, each of which is the "manifestation of an intensely (insanely) personal vision." [NY Magazine]

7 a.m. Adolfo Carrion hosts a bike ride and breakfast for bicyclists in the borough, at Kingsbridge Road and Grand Concourse.

8:30 a.m. David Weprin and others speak at the Water Board meeting about the proposed rate hike, at Room 123 at 101 Murray Street.

10 a.m. The City Council will hold committee hearings on the executive budget, in the City Council chambers at City Hall.

10 a.m. The New York State Assembly will hold a hearing on legislation dealing with geriatric mental health, at Room 1923 of 250 Broadway.

11 a.m. Elected officials and students rally for more C.U.N.Y. funding, on the steps of City Hall.

12:45 p.m. Representative Tim Bishop discusses Long Island’s economic issues during a conference call with reporters.

1:30 p.m. The City Council holds its stated meeting in the City Council chambers, at City Hall.

4 p.m. Republican State Sen. Andrew Lanza honors local teachers, at 2800 Victory Boulevard, on Staten Island.

5:30 p.m. Parents and teachers in Chinatown protest education budget cuts, at 100 Hester Street.
 
6 p.m. A town hall meeting titled, “The State of Black Harlem,” is held at 250 West 127th Street.
 
7 p.m. The Staten Island Conservative Party hosts their annual fund-raiser, at 2131 Hylan Boulevard.

And Conservative Party state chairman Michael Long attends the Monroe County Conservative Party annual fundraiser.

Ed Rendell and Bob Casey write a joint fund-raising letter for the D.N.C.

The argument for a Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama ticket "overstates the benefits" and "understates the costs," writes the Economist. 

The Tennessee Republican Party did what everyone said someone from the G.O.P. would do with comments Michelle Obama made earlier this year.

PolitickerNJ notes how infrequently Senators lose primaries.

Obama gets three influential superdelegates. 

David Paterson signed legislation making it a crime to display a noose.

Eliot Brown reports on Paterson's search for a statewide development czar. 

Spin Cycle remembers a moment from a past primary.

Dean Skelos thinks that legislators are being unfairly blamed for the delay on legislative pay raises.

Dominican politicians are campaigning in New York. 

It's not every day you hear a senior Senator say "kick his ass." 

The City Council announced they will not be funding any initiative in fiscal year '09 that is not already slated to get funded under this year’s city budget.

In a public statement, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said, “As we enter more uncertain economic times, we need to set fiscal priorities in the budget,” and added, “Putting a moratorium on new initiatives will allow us to cut back on city spending and to focus on restoring funds to essential services that New Yorker’s already depend on everyday.”

According to a spokesperson, Quinn told reporters at City Hall that this step would save the city tens of millions of dollars.

Politically, it’s the kind of announcement that may also help repair Quinn’s image as a manager of the council's finances, although it already seems to be on the mend.

Governor Paterson is moving closer to picking a chief for his main economic development agency, the Empire State Development Corporation, a body that has sat without a clear leader since its downstate chairman under Governor Spitzer, Pat Foye, announced his resignation two months ago. The agency oversees many of the state’s large, high-profile development projects including Moynihan Station, Atlantic Yards and the Javits Center.

A committee of mostly business leaders and led by Sandy Weill is due to recommend a new chairman to Mr. Paterson in one to two weeks, at which point the governor will have the final say, according to multiple people familiar with discussions.

Those people said that the names being considered include: Alan Fishman, the President of a Brooklyn-based investment organization and the Chairman of the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation; Dennis Mehiel, the former Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor in 2002 and a business owner in the paper and packaging industry; and Sharon Greenberger, the president of the city’s School Construction Authority.

Other names floated include Avi Schick, currently the acting CEO of ESDC downstate, and Fred Hochberg, dean of the New School’s Milano management and urban policy program.

Earlier this month, Governor Paterson said he expects to reverse a structure put in place by the Spitzer administration at the ESDC and install one overarching chairman for the agency. The Spitzer structure, with one chair apiece for upstate and downstate, seemed not to work, Mr. Paterson said.

Democracy for New York City, the progressive group related to Howard Dean's Democracy for America, is holding a forum on Sunday, May 18 for the candidates in two upcoming elections: the one for Sheldon Silver's Assembly seat, and the challenge to State Senator Marty Connor.

And they are asking you (yes, you!) to submit questions online.

Paul Newell and Luke Henry, who are both competing in the Democratic primary against Silver, have confirmed to DFNYC they will attend, although Silver himself won’t be there, as Crain’s reported this morning. According to his campaign spokesman, Jonathan Rosen, Silver “looks forward to getting out on the campaign trail after the legislative session and once we know who all the candidates will be.”

Marty Connor's spokesman told me "he probably will" attend, but they still have questions about how it's being organized. His challenger, former Chuck Schumer aide Dan Squadron, told DFNYC he'll be there.

The event will be held at 127 Norfolk Street from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

One of the remaining bidders for the West Side rail yards, a team of the Durst Organizaiton and Vornado Realty Trust, said it is expecting that S.I. Newhouse’s Condé Nast will remain part of its bid as an anchor tenant.

“We expect that Condé would be our partner,” said Durst spokesman Jordan Barowitz.

However, Condé, which began a new search for space after Tishman Speyer was named the winner over the Durst/Vornado team in March, did not make clear its plans, as a company spokeswoman, Maury Perl, declined comment.

In the original Durst/Vornado bid, Condé expected to take about 1.5 million square feet on the rail yards, a move made easier given that its 4 Times Square headquarters is owned by Durst.

But after the bid fell short (Tishman was announced the winner but failed to ever sign an agreement before its deal collapsed in recent days), Condé began talking to other potential landlords. And, according to a real estate executive, the firm is still in discussions to go to a Ninth Avenue site owned by Brookfield Properties just east of the West Side rail yards.

If the Durst/Vornado team is able to keep Condé as an anchor tenant, it would certainly enhance its bid with a sense of certainty that Tishman Speyer lacked given its anchor tenant, Morgan Stanley, dropped out of the bid.

As for the other remaining developers, an Extell Development representative has said the company expects to rejoin the effort to win the rail yards, and Steve Ross’ Related Companies is considering a bid, according to a person familiar with the company.

New York’s City Parks Foundation gives another good reason for 20-somethings to make it over the bridge to Manhattan besides classes at NYU or vinyl sales at Mondo Kim’s. According to Pitchfork, the Foundation’s program for this year’s Central Park SummerStage, their 23rd, includes British soulster Jamie Lidell, DJ mastermind Diplo (the man behind M.I.A.), the math-rock heroics of Battles, the gritty funk of Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, and, of course, our own cardigan-hording Upper West Side chums, Vampire Weekend – and that’s just a sampling. All of it goes down at Central Park’s Rumsey Playfield between June 12 and August 17, and all of it is completely free.

The Foundation will raise money for these open-air delights with, what else, but a handful of benefit shows. Yeasayer, Mark Knopfler, Sonny Rollings, the National, and Crosby, Stills & Nash will do the honors.

Juniper Park Civic Association, a (surprisingly?) large and organized community group in western Queens, is hosting a debate for candidates in the June 3 special election to fill Dennis Gallagher’s City Council seat, and it will be followed the next day by a forum for candidates in the same race.

JPCA’s influence was best demonstrated when their quixotic campaign against the Cross Harbor Tunnel led to a billboard, and, since it was an election year, resulted in Michael Bloomberg forcefully denouncing the plan. (After the election, Bloomberg shifted his position.)

Also, it's led by Robert Holden, a colorful character who has been a major force in Queens politics for some time.

That debate is taking place Tuesday, May 20, at 7:30 p.m. at Our Lady of Hope, 61-21 71st Street in Middle Village.

Then, on Wednesday, May 21, there’s a candidates forum sponsored by the League of Preservation Voters and the Historic Districts Council. It's at 7 p.m. at P.S. 49, 79-15 Penelope Avenue.

I'll be going to at least one if not both events, and to blatantly copy DFNYC, I'm wondering: What would you ask the candidates?

To refresh your memory, they are: Elizabeth Crowley, Anthony Como, Charles Ober, Tom Ognibene and Joseph Suraci.

It’s hard to tell we’re in an economic contraction – or, dare we say, recession (cue scary music) – what with retail rents continuing to rise along prime New York shopping corridors.

Haven’t the landlords paid any heed to Ben Bernanke? Or to the plight of their colleagues in commercial real estate who, as this paper has reported, are hiking up the amount of goodies they’re giving renters in exchange for signing leases?

Apparently they haven’t.

According to the Real Estate Board of New York’s annual spring retail report, released today, ground-floor rents along Third Avenue, between 60th and 72nd streets, rose 51 percent to $329 per-square-foot compared to the same time last year. On Fifth Avenue between 14th and 23rd streets, rents rose 50 percent to $401 a square foot.

Rents also rose along 34th Street between Fifth and Seventh avenues; and on Broadway between Houston and Broome streets.

Not only have rents risen along prime corridors, but according to REBNY, the universe of prime corridors has actually expanded to heretofore second-rate shopping strips like 86th Street on the East Side and Columbus Avenue on the Upper West Side.

Less surprising, Fifth Avenue remained the most expensive place to open a shop, with an average asking rent of $1,958 a square foot.

For more recession-defying stats, read the full release below.

REPORT: MANHATTAN RETAIL RENTS SURGING IN PRIME SHOPPING CORRIDORS

Retail rents jump 50% in key districts

Rents in Herald Square and SoHo’s Broadway shopping strip both up 32%

NEW YORK, May 15, 2008 – Asking rents for retail space in Manhattan increased substantially in the last six months compared to the same period last year, as retailers continued to seek space in the primary shopping corridors, according to a report released today by The Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY).

Retailer interest in prime shopping areas, combined with the city’s population growth, a continuing surge in tourism, all contributed to the trend of rising rents.

On major shopping corridors, the sharpest increases were found on Third Avenue between 60th and 72nd streets, where asking rents for ground floor space were up 51 percent to $329 per-square-foot (psf), and in the Flatiron District on Fifth Avenue between 14th and 23rd streets, where rents were up 50 percent to $401 psf.

REBNY’s report, the most comprehensive assessment of retail asking rents in Manhattan, also found substantial increases in asking rents for retail space in Herald Square on West 34th Street between 5th Avenue and 7th Avenue, which rose 32 percent to $656 psf. Retail rents in SoHo’s Broadway shopping area between Houston and Broome streets also increased 32 percent to $424 psf.

“Building owners remain optimistic that the favorable market for retail leasing will continue despite the softening economy,” said Steven Spinola, REBNY President. “We are still seeing high asking rents in the selected retail corridors. Further, we’ve now added new primary retail corridors to correspond with interest by high-profile retailers in locating to these areas, including 86th Street on the Upper East Side and Columbus Avenue on the Upper West Side.”

Five new corridors have been added to the list of Selected Major Retail Corridors in the report. These include: 86th Street on the Upper East Side; Columbus Avenue on the Upper West Side; Fifth Avenue south of 49th Street in Midtown; Bleecker Street in the West Village and 14th Street in the Meatpacking District both in Midtown South.

The Fifth Avenue (49th-59th) corridor had the highest average asking rent of $1,958 of all corridors surveyed, and had virtually no prime locations immediately available.

The Madison Avenue corridor had the next highest average asking rent of $1,066, with some stores asking more than $1500 for ground floor space.

“While the volume of retail leasing activity is strong, we are seeing that tenants appear to be taking a longer time to make decisions and to complete deals. In addition, prime areas like the Fifth Avenue corridor, the most famed shopping area in Manhattan, has virtually no retail space available, meaning all the prime locations are already spoken for,” added Mr. Spinola. “Overall, the rising rents indicate a strong market and that retailers continue to have interest in coming to New York City.”

The average asking rent psf for all Manhattan retail space (ground floor and other) was up three percent to $111 compared to a year ago.

Other highlights from the Spring 2008 report include the following

Neighborhoods:

· In Midtown, the average asking rent was up nine percent to $145; in Midtown South, the average asking rent was up eight percent to $96, compared to last year.

· The East Side had the highest average asking rent of the major areas at $164, a six percent increase since last spring. This includes all available retail space (ground floor and other).

Selected Retail Corridors:

· Average asking rents continue to rise on Harlem’s 125th Street, the largest retail corridor in the report. Asking rents on 125th Street rose four percent to $107 psf. This major commercial street extends from East Harlem through Central Harlem to West Harlem, generally from the East River to the Hudson. One strong pocket of activity is the stretch west of Lenox Avenue where the highest asking rents are clustered.

· The West Side’s Broadway corridor between 72nd to 86th streets saw rents increase 23 percent to $384 psf.

· In the Financial District, asking rents for ground floor space in the Broadway corridor between Battery Park and Chambers Street rose 12 percent to $198 psf.

About the REBNY Retail Report

The REBNY Retail Report is issued twice a year in the spring and fall. Findings are reviewed by an advisory group that distills and analyzes the data. The report provides comprehensive information about available retail space and asking rents in Manhattan from a broad cross section of the city’s top real estate firms. The report presents all available data on retail space by geographic area and focuses on the ground floor space on the major retail streets. It provides an objective and reliable source for discerning market trends.

The Real Estate Board of New York is the city’s leading real estate trade association with more than 12,000 members. REBNY represents major commercial and residential property owners and builders, brokers and managers, banks, financial service companies, utilities, attorneys, architects, contractors and other individuals and institutions professionally interested in the City’s real estate. REBNY is involved in crucial municipal matters including tax policy, city planning and zoning, rental conditions, land use policy, building codes and legislation. In addition, REBNY publishes reports providing indicators of market prices for both the residential and commercial sectors.

Here's a little more evidence of how frenzied things are getting in Staten Island, now that Representative Vito Fossella's seat might be up for grabs in the fall.

Yesterday I reported that, according to Independence Party state executive committee member Frank Morano, the I.P. is interviewing candidates for Fossella's seat on May 25.

That isn't the whole story. Due to a long (and somewhat complicated) internal fight, two factions have developed that want a voice in how the Independence Party deals with that race: Morano and state party chair Frank MacKay are on one side, with Independence Party Staten Island County Committee chair Sarah Lyons, and others, on the other side.

(I don't want to overstate the role of the I.P. here, but they do deliver votes.)

Lyons called me this morning to say that the county committee has already interviewed four candidates for upcoming races: Democratic Assemblyman Mike Cusick of Staten Island, his Republican challenger David Pascarella Democratic State Senator Diane Savino of Staten Island and Brooklyn, and Democratic attorney Steve Harrison of Brooklyn.

Lyons said the screening committee will make a recommendation to the county committee’s nine-member executive committee, who will vote on endorsement before petitioning begins next month.

In a follow-up conversation, Lyons said the county committee discussed "the possibility of running for the congressional seat," with Cusick and Savino, but that they were there seeking support for their own re-elections.

UPDATE: Frank Morano called to say that only state executive committee has the authority to issue Wilson Pakula forms -- which allows candidates from one party to run on the ballot line of a different party line -- and they can do so for every office in New York City, except for the three citywide offices (mayor, public advocate and comptroller).

Sarah Lyons and her supporters within the Independence Party have appealed the state supreme court ruling that gave this power to the state executive committee, but no ruling has been made.

Morano also said that even if he and his supporters lose the court fight, they still have the upper hand. That’s because, Morano said, Fossella’s seat is a bicounty seat. And for those seats, the authority to issue Wilson Pakula’s rests with the state executive committee, which is aligned with Morano’s faction.

Surprisingly, today's Phil Spector news doesn't involve the legendary 69-year-old producer's murder trial, although it does involve a death: that of the engineer who helped create Mr. Spector's famed "Wall of Sound" recording technique.

The New York-born Larry Levine, 80, died on May 8 at his Encino, Calif. home after suffering from emphysema, The New York Times reports:

Mr. Levine, a house engineer at Gold Star Recording Studios in Hollywood, first collaborated with Mr. Spector in 1962 on the Crystals hit “He’s A Rebel,” the first of many Spector-produced records featuring lush instrumental backgrounds and heavy use of echo chamber. The wall of sound technique, which Mr. Spector and Mr. Levine refined through a process of trial and error, defined a string of hits, including “Be My Baby” and “Walking in the Rain” by the Ronettes, “Da Doo Ron Ron” and “Then He Kissed Me” by the Crystals, and “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” and “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers.

Mr. Levine was born in New York on May 8, 1928, and was reared in Los Angeles. After serving in the Army in the Korean War, he began working as a recording engineer for Mr. Ross, an owner and founder of Gold Star. Before teaming up with Mr. Spector, he worked with Eddie Cochran, engineering the sound on “Summertime Blues” and other records.

He first crossed paths with Mr. Spector in 1958, when Mr. Spector, a member of the Teddy Bears, was at Gold Star recording “To Know Him Is to Love Him.” Mr. Levine steered clear of Mr. Spector at first, put off by what he later recalled as “a little acerbic attitude,” but Mr. Levine’s calm, accommodating nature proved to be a perfect match for his volatile partner.

Meanwhile, a pre-trial hearing for Mr. Spector is scheduled for May 22, according to the Associated Press. His previous trial ended in deadlock last year, and a new trial date has not been set.

Last year I wrote a piece about “Hillary Haters,” a prime specimen of which was a group called StopHerNow.

So it was interesting to see an advertisement across the top of the Drudge Report today for StopHimNow, a Web site, from the same people, dedicated to portraying Barack Obama as naïve and unintelligent.

An example: A cartoon depicts an imagined meeting in the Oval Office between Obama and his "spiritual adviser," the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

"Is love black and white?" Obama asks.

"No, it is black," Wright screams.

"Really?" asks Obama.

"God damned right it is," screams Wright.

"That's what I'd thought you'd say," answers Obama, assured.

It’s an indication that what Clinton once called the "vast right-wing conspiracy" has already begun to shift its energies to Obama. (The fact that the URL is still stophernow seems to show just how much Obama's likely nomination caught them by surprise.)

The main man behind the Web site is Dick Collins, who I spent some time with in Texas and who was certain then, as most everyone was, that Clinton was going to be the nominee. When I had asked him at lunch why he was concentrating on Clinton, he said, "Because she is going to be the leader."

Collins considered the Web site different from most political independent expenditure efforts, because he imagined it would be funded through grass-roots contributors. Last summer he told me the goal was to raise $4 million by the general.

"Most independent expenditure efforts is when you get a bunch of rich guys; all of us know who some of the leading people are here in Texas, these are rich guys that get together and raise money to pound the other opponent," he said.

His group, he said, could get by on far less: “Funding it is not going to be an issue."

The original idea for the Web site came from Republican consultant Arthur Finkelstein, who by last summer had officially separated himself from the project, but continued to advise Collins.

It will be interesting to see who is funding the site now.

It's quitting time at Blackbook.

On the heels of the major departures of its managing editor and photo director, Blackbook has now lost its publisher, Joe Landry.

Mr. Landry is returning to his old stomping grounds and will become group publisher of both Out magazine and The Advocate, replacing Jay Adams, who was fired earlier this week. Mr. Landry worked with both Out and The Advocate for years before he ditched them for Blackbook two years ago.

"It's an opportunity to go back to the brand that I built," said Mr. Landry to Media Mob. "The new owners are very passionate about the brands that I bought."

"We’ve been bought by a company that primarily deals with television and film and therefore lacks some of the experience in publishing that Joe will bring to the company when he returns," said Aaron Hicklin, the editor of Out, in an interview. Last month, Out and The Advocate were purchased by Regent Publishing for the tiny sum of $6 million (five times less than what they were purchased for 2.5 years ago).

And so what in the world is happening at Blackbook? Within the last month, the magazine has lost both its managing editor, Una LaMarche, and its photo director, Shannon Hall.

Journalista: The Comics Journal Weblog is reporting that Will Elder, the famed illustrator and one of the founders of Mad Magazine, has died at 86. (This comes via boing boing.) Elder was considered a major influence on artists like Robert Crumb and Daniel Clowes.

Gary Groth, an editor at Fantagraphics, which published several Elder books (including Will Elder: The Mad Playboy of Art and Chicken Fat) told the Media Mob, "He was such a fabulous talent in the sense that he could do almost anything." Recalling his penchant for pranks, Mr. Groth called Mr. Elder "instrumental in making Mad."

In David Hajdu's recent book The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America, the author described Elder as follows:

He could render anything he could see with the precision of a photograph—or mimic virtually any fine-art style, including various modes of impressionism and early abstract art—yet he had no inclination to waste his time on anything other than his overriding interest, pranksterism. The sound of his name to those who knew him well, such as his former schoolmates and fellow cartoonists, Al Jaffee (who met Elder in eighth grade, when they were both being tested for admission to the High School of Music and Art), John Severin, and David Gantz, was a cue for grin and a round of 'Crazy Willy' stories: the time, when he was a kid in the Bronx, when Elder took discarded pieces of beef carcasses from a meat-processing plant, arranged them in old clothes on the railroad tracks, and started screaming that his friend Moishe had been killed; or the time, when he was in high school, that he smeared chalk dust on his face and pretended to be hanging in the coat closet; or, when went to lunch with some friends from EC [Comics] and tried to pay the cashier with leaves of lettuce that he had in his wallet. His humor was almost aggressively madcap, startling, often dark, and silly.

"He really was one of the sweetest, most generous guys I've met in this profession," said Groth, who is currently compiling a complete reprinting of Humbug, a post-Mad project by Elder, Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Davis, and Al Jaffee for a new Fantagraphics book.

"He really was wonderfully helpful and incredibly sweet. Which is probably why he didn't become an enormous success in this business. He was too nice a guy."

David Brock's group Progressive Media has scaled back its planned $40 million effort because the Obama campaign disapproves of 527s. [The Fix]

Obama said George W. Bush's comments about appeasement were a false attack. [AP]

Kirsten Gillibrand had a boy. [Capitol Confidential]

One of Sheldon Silver’s Democratic opponents, Paul Newell, opened a campaign office at 26 Bowery Street. (Suggestions on where Silver and his other opponent, Luke Henry, should open offices?) [Google Maps]

A lot of citywide officials have a long trip tonight to attend both the Queens County Democratic Organization’s spring fund-raiser at Antun’s in Queens Village (right near the L.I.R.R. station) and the Stonewall Democratic Club’s annual fund-raiser, on West 13th Street. [link added]

Anthony Weiner redid his legislative website to include a host of new features, including, Weiner TV. [Weiner TV]

Mayors Against Illegal Guns is running ads in Kentucky. [Liz]

Yesterday, we got some of the details wrong about Mathew Broderick's new apartment. City records show that Mr. Broderick did indeed take over the title of the fourth-floor co-op at 360 West 36th Street that belonged to his late mother Patricia. But it's unclear whether Mr. Broderick has put his new property on the market.

Mrs. Broderick passed away in 2003, leaving her son responsible for her estate. He lives on MacDougal Sreet, according to the transfer deed, with his wife Sarah Jessica Parker.

"This is an awesome space, an awesome location," chef Scott Conant said, during a packed-house grand opening party at his new digs in the meatpacking district--er, at least, sort of in the meatpacking district.

"It's not really in the meatpacking, it's on, you know what I'm saying?"

The former L'Impero and Alto cook's latest restaurant Scarpetta opened Monday evening in the former Gin Lane and old Village Idiot space at 355 West 14th Street, just east of Ninth Avenue.

"A lot of the core clientele, a lot of Upper East Siders and a lot of people from Uptown, they're not going to be kind of spooked by going too much into the meatpacking. Too far inside of it, it might scare 'em off. But because it's on it, they feel comfortable coming down.

"I looked everywhere," Mr. Conant said. "But I really wanted it to be a West Village restaurant. It's probably one of the last neighborhoods that is pure New York."

It's a changing neighborhood, certainly: With the new Apple Store moving in just across Ninth Avenue and long-standing neighborhood institutions Florent and Passerby, um, passing on, landlords have been asking upward of $500 per square foot for retail space in the area.

"We took over the existing lease, so we're not signing a new one--let's put it that way--but still, we pay a significant amount," Mr. Conant said of the roughly 2,500-square-foot former dive-bar space.

"I've never personally been in a restaurant space that has this much chutzpah," he said proudly. "In order to tap into that, you need to pay the proper lease."

By the looks of it, he also spent a pretty penny on renovations. The improvements include a retractable glass roof.

"From the middle, it splits. When it does, it's awesome. It's just completely open, so you get a nice breeze into the space."

Good enough that it's almost unfunny again.

The number of apartment buildings sold in Manhattan above 96th Street in the second half of 2007 dropped 29.5 percent from the first half of the year, according to a new report. The report, prepared by appraisal firm Miller Cicero for investment-sales brokerage Massey Knakal, shows also that the number of walk-up and elevator apartment buildings in Upper Manhattan fell by 30.8 percent from the first half of 2007.

Apartment building sales also dropped in Manhattan below 96th Street. Sales of walk-ups were down almost 50 percent from the first half of 2007. Sales of elevator buildings, however, increased 13.5 percent.

Sales of apartment buildings borough-wide fell 27.5 percent from the first half of 2007 through the second.

Full release on the report, which shows increases in sales prices for apartment buildings, below.
 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

From: Massey Knakal Realty Services

275 Madison Avenue, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10016

Contacts: Richard Mulieri

The Marino Organization

212-889-0808

richard@themarino.org

MASSEY KNAKAL REPORT SHOWS MANHATTAN INVESTMENT PROPERTY SALES PRICES MOSTLY HIGHER

-Number of Buildings Sold Decline-

NEW YORK, May 15, 2008 – Sale prices per square foot of Manhattan apartment buildings below 96th Street increased in all three building categories – walk-ups, elevator and mixed-use buildings – according to the Massey Knakal Realty Services New York City Income Property Report for the second half of 2007. In Northern Manhattan (above 96th Street), prices were up in two of the three building categories. The number of buildings sold borough-wide in the last half of 2007, however, fell 27.5 percent compared to the previous six-month period.

Price per square foot for Manhattan walk-up buildings south of 96th Street posted the highest year-to-year percentage increase in the borough, reaching $605. That’s up by 29 percent from the second half of 2006. Walk-ups also posted a 19.1-percent increase from the first half of 2007. The increase in walk-up prices is more a reflection of higher quality buildings sold during the period than an actual increase in prices.

Price per square foot of Manhattan elevator buildings hit $527 per square foot, also a record and up 1.9 percent from the first quarter of 2007 and 17.4 percent from the same period a year earlier. Mixed-use buildings, typically apartment buildings with retail or commercial on the lower floors, tied the record high they set in the second half of 2006 at $940 per square foot, which was up 3.5 percent from the first half of 2007.

The rising prices in Southern Manhattan were accompanied by a significant drop in the number of walk-ups sold – down by nearly 50 percent from 178 in the first half of 2007 to 95 in the second half of the year. Sales were down a more modest 17.3 percent from the first half of 2006. The number of elevator buildings sold in Manhattan was up by 35.5 percent from a year earlier and up by 13.5 percent from the first half of last year. The number of mixed-use buildings sold was up by 51.7 percent from the second half of 2006, but fell by 1.1 percent since the first half of 2007. Cap rates and gross income multipliers were generally consistent with their 2006 levels.

“The lower volume level is not necessarily attributable to decreased demand,” said Massey Knakal Chairman Robert Knakal. “Demand is there, but buyers and sellers are engaged in a psychological battle – some buyers are being cautious and taking a wait and see attitude while sellers are reluctant to lower prices. Time will tell who flinches first.

“The majority of the transactions used for the report closed after the onset of the credit crunch and are, thus, reflective of our new world,” added Knakal. “While lenders, in general, have tightened requirements, portfolio lenders are aggressively pumping money into the market primarily on assets in our niche, which is helping to stabilize value.”

The scenario in Manhattan south of 96th Street – increased prices and decreased number of sales – played itself out in the northern part of the borough, with the exception of six-month price comparisons for walk-ups and mixed-use buildings, which were down by 10.2 and 6.1 percent, respectively. Walk-ups were up to $291 per square foot, an increase of 2.8 percent from the second half of 2006, and mixed-use buildings were up to $417 per square foot, an increase of 26.4 percent in that period. Elevator buildings were up by 17.6 percent from the second half of 2006 and up 22.2 percent from the first half of 2007, reaching $187 per square foot in the last half of 2007.

The number of buildings sold in Northern Manhattan was down across the board, with total sales falling to 148 in the second half of 2007, down by 11.9 percent from the second half of 2006 and by 29.5 percent from the first half of 2007. The number of mixed-use buildings sold fell by nearly half to just eight from the first half of 2006. Compared to the first half of 2007, the number of walk-ups and elevator buildings fell by 27.8 percent and 30.8 percent, respectively.

Citywide (excluding Staten Island, which is not tracked by the report), prices per square foot of all classes of apartment buildings in the last half of 2007 were up slightly to $234 – that’s a four-percent increase from the same period a year earlier and a 1.3-percent uptick from the first half of the year. The number of buildings sold citywide in the last half of 2007 was down 16.9 percent as compared to the first half of the year and down 6.9 percent from the second half of 2006.

About the Report

The Massey Knakal New York City Income Market Report, prepared by appraisal firm Miller Cicero, LLC, is the only report of its kind and is a vital tool in gaining understanding of nuances in the complex investment market. The report examines various market indicators by property type in five markets: Manhattan, Northern Manhattan, Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn.

Methodology

Median price per square foot and the number of sales were based on all closed sales in the public record over $500,000, as reported by Property Shark (www.propertyshark.com). Cap rates and Gross Income Multipliers were based on sales researched by Miller Cicero, LLC in addition to properties sold by Massey Knakal Realty Services, and represent a reasonable sampling of all sales.

About Massey Knakal

Massey Knakal Realty Services is a full-service property sales company specializing in the sale of investment and user properties. The firm was founded in 1988 by Paul J. Massey, Jr. and Robert A. Knakal, two former Coldwell Banker Commercial (now CBRE) executives. The duo ran the property sales division of Coldwell for four years before leaving to form their own company.

David Paterson invoked Hurricane Katrina while reiterating his opposition to the gas-tax holiday, a proposal that was supported by Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail, and which recently passed the State Senate with Joe Bruno's backing.

At a press conference about a personnel matter in his midtown office, Paterson told reporters to go to the oil companies and “ask them why, the week after Katrina—the Katrina Hurricane—August 29, 2005, ask them why the gas prices went up in that week.

"It couldn’t have had anything to do with the gas," Paterson charged. "Because gas delivery took place three weeks before then. They sold you the same gas that was in their tank the week before at—at some points—10 to 15 percent higher.”

Paterson added, “We can diminish the tax on them, but there’s no guarantee they’re going to pass that along to the consumer.” He went on to say that if there was such an assurance from oil companies and distributors, he would sign the bill. (In either case, its support in the Assembly is not firm).

The governor called the press conference to announce that he is hiring his “great friend and old opponent,” Galen Kirkland, to head the state's Division of Human Rights. Kirkland and Paterson ran for the State Senate against each other four times.

When asked if the civil rights of Sean Bell had been violated, Kirkland said, “That’s something we’ll have to look at.”

The Steelworkers Union endorsed Barack Obama. [CNN] 

Betsy Gotbaum rubs elbows with Wes Clark. [Liz]

Rudy Giuliani will keynote the state Republican Party dinner. [Politics on the Hudson] 

Jay Newton-Small takes a cyncical approach to Obama's flag pin habits. [Time] 

Here's John McCain's vision of what the world would look like after four years of his presidency. [Politico]

Fearmongering over the Second Avenue subway? [Second Avenue Sagas] 

The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company
By David A. Price
Alfred A. Knopf, 308 pages, $27.95

David Price unerringly puts his finger on the primary problem with The Pixar Touch in his acknowledgments, where he thanks his editor for "taking a chance on a book about business and technology and filmmaking."

It sounds suspiciously as though the editor did some worrying about the combination—if so, she was right.

Throughout The Pixar Touch, but especially in the first 100 or so pages, Mr. Price pays slavish attention to the technology that made computer animation possible. But technology is only interesting to techies, and the reliance on jargon and acronyms effectively puts the book into a deep freeze when it should be in its opening sprint.

The first half is full of sentences like this: "The frame buffer had not shipped yet from Evans & Sutherland, so the men started by teaching themselves how to use the 3-D linedrawing system that had already come in, as well as the lab’s mini-computer, a PDP-11/45 from Digital Equipment Corp."

That’s not actually the worst of it.

Here’s the worst of it: "The medium of motion pictures had had its start in the Bay Area a little more than a century earlier at an estate called Palo Alto, the future site of Stanford University. There, an engineer named John Isaacs helped the photographer Eadweard Muybridge capture still images of a horse and rider in motion."

It’s as if someone writing a biography of Walt Disney had insisted on spending dozens of pages detailing George Eastman’s invention of celluloid, dozens more about Edison’s devising of the Kinetoscope and so forth. All of these things were archeologically crucial to Disney’s eventual purposes, but none of it had anything to do with Disney personally. Like Monroe Stahr, he was just making pictures. So is Pixar’s John Lasseter, but we have to hike over a lot of arid ground before we get to the movies.

Perhaps James B. Stewart or Michael Lewis, superb business reporters who also brandish glistening styles, could have figured out a way to keep all these balls in the air, but the task defeats David Price.

Ultimately, the first half of the book is mostly technology with some business, while the last half is almost all business and filmmaking. Needless to say, the last half is considerably more interesting.

Mr. Price also misses perhaps the most crucial aspect of why Pixar has been so successful. Yes, they’ve released eight pictures, from Toy Stor (1995) to Ratatouille (2007), with nary a critical or commercial stiff among them, which is a remarkable record. But, once past novelty’s first blush, it’s not because of the technology.

Lasseter and company went back to First Principles: story, story, story and character, character, character. Disney, the unquestioned animation leader for more than 40 years, began a slow but inexorable descent sometime in the ’60s, when they began allowing celebrity voices to define their characters more than the very ordinary scripts or animation.

Jeffrey Katzenberg revised the formula somewhat by turning animated films into Broadway musicals that happened to be drawn as much as performed, but as The Lion King inevitably gave way to The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Pocahontas, something new was clearly called for.

That turned out to be a digital technology developed by computer engineers that gave a bright, photorealistic gleam to the most mundane objects, and whose novelty factor was enough to propel even sloppily animated, crass films—and yes, I mean Shrek—to incredible financial success.

For Walt Disney, substitute John Lasseter, and you have the same old story of a basically benign genius wresting enchantment out of an intractable, time-consuming technology that others used like apprentice plumbers. Similarly, the gang at Blue Sky studio, the makers of Ice Age and Horton Hears a Who!, have opted to emulate the razor timing of Chuck Jones and the rest of the reprobates at Warner Bros. animation, and do it extremely well.

Mr. Lasseter is a great admirer of Disney’s Nine Old Men, especially Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. Thomas initially didn’t think that computers could replicate the delicate expressions of pencil animation, but later came around after seeing an early Pixar short called Red’s Dream. I would have loved to have Mr. Lasseter’s telling of that moment, but he chose not to speak to Mr. Price, which seems a terrible pity.

Once he gets past the Himalaya of the technology, Mr. Price tells the story effectively, tracing Pixar from its founding by Ed Catmull through Steve Jobs, who bought Pixar from Lucasfilm for $5 million and kept it going with his personal funds until it tied up with Disney under initially onerous financial terms. Pixar, of course, ended up being bought by Disney and taking complete control of the studio’s animation operation.

My advice: Go directly to Chapter Five, "Pixar, Inc." Pretend it’s page one. You won’t have missed a thing.

Scott Eyman reviews books regularly for The Observer. He can be reached at seyman@observer.com.

Superbad's Jonah Hill has signed on to executive produce and possibly star in a new movie version of Johnny Depp's star-making, late-80s vehicle, 21 Jump Street. Variety reports:

The smallscreen property, which aired from 1987-91 on Fox and starred Johnny Depp, revolved around a group of young cops who worked undercover in high schools and colleges.

The "Superbad" thesp would develop the screenplay as a potential starring vehicle and serve as executive producer.

Neal Moritz will produce the film with Stephen J. Cannell, who co-created and exec produced the series.

On a recent Saturday night, I did a little experiment: I broke the rules of youthful social engagement and went to a bar by myself. I sat in the dimly lit courtyard behind Union Pool in Williamsburg. I made myself available, quietly sipping a pint of Blue Moon.

By 11, small groups had perched themselves all around me on wooden benches chatting about their lives, jobs and families. A group of three pretty ladies gossiped vehemently about their film industry jobs. I sat nearby in my frilly dress eavesdropping. After an hour of enjoying the warm weather, and having not made any new acquaintances, I made my way to sit at the bar. Again, no luck.

Rarely are Brooklyn's local watering holes a place to meet new people these days. The age-old complaint of post-college social isolation was now fresh in my mind.

While advising me about my love life, my mother always likes to tell stories about her youthful evenings spent at her local singles bar. The rules of engagement are much different now. It's been a long time since there were social mores about which gender approaches the other, pays for dates or makes the first move on a first date. A cursory glance at Craigslist's missed connections section proves that many 25- to 35-year-olds, especially recent transplants, don't necessarily have the stones to introduce themselves in person.

“Especially in a bar scenario chicks automatically think you're a creep more often than not,” said one of my 27-year-old guy friends about approaching women at bars. “I've got a couple of minutes, if I'm lucky, to show how smart and funny I am and prove that I'm legitimate.”

While Manhattan and even some choice Brooklyn spots (see Union Hall or Metropolitan on weekends) might still have the meat market label, for the most part Brooklyn bars have a far more low-key tone. For the dating 20- and 30-somethings, that low-key tone still makes it difficult to meet a mate, or even make a friend.

Beyond the velvet curtains framing the doorway at Flatbush Farm, a barbecue restaurant and bar with a beautiful backyard, there isn't much of a pick-up scene for its 25- to 45-year-old demographic. “So often there's two guys and two girls sitting at the bar but they don't usually talk to each other,” said bartender Jason on a recent afternoon. Or, he says, people meet for first dates where “it seems like they've talked on the phone but never met in person.”

Jason offered up a story about how he had been chatting with a female patron who awaited her date's arrival. He was late. They had never met before. Jason ran downstairs as the gentleman walked in, and upon his return to the bar, the date was gone. The woman had sent him away. He wasn't her type. Why waste time? On to the next date.

Meeting people in bars, especially one's local watering hole, is indeed a rare occurrence these days. “You're not going to find the person,” offered Lem, Jason's 36-year-old bartending counterpart. “It's going to be a hookup.”

Since the days of the singles bar, meeting people socially has gone virtual in the form of various Internet dating and networking sites. Increasingly, Craigslist has become the dirty little secret introducing young couples. One recent headline even asks point blank: Are you willing to lie about how we met? That's not really news, but Craigslist is increasingly the destination for young people (and a few olds) to make new friends and meet new lovers. Perhaps Craigslist is more convenient than the days of singles bars, as it allows one to sift through various pictures, desires and hobbies until a match is made. And besides, many have found apartments and jobs through the site, so why not love or friendship?

Another friend recently moved to Seattle and admitted having to place a Craigslist ad to make new friends. Already in a relationship, and employed in a job with much older co-workers, she had no outlet for meeting new people in a new city.

With the still-unwritten laws of Internet dating, it can be tough to navigate making new friends. No longer in a setting like college, teeming with potential new friends, late-20-somethings are awkwardly emerging from long-term college relationships and wondering what the next step is. Where, exactly, do they find new people, and more importantly, where do they find new people with whom they'll actually have something in common?

Back at Union Pool, ennui eventually set in. I started text-messaging friends for real, live human engagement. Though there had been a few other single people at the bar, nobody found reason to strike up a conversation. I finished a second beer and headed to a house party nearby. Surrounded by friends, finally, I was poured a shot of sake by the host and introductions to new guys were suddenly fluid and simple. And then I realized they were all gay.

Representative Anthony Weiner’s call to get rid of earmarks may work out well for him in next year's mayoral race, but it isn’t gaining much traction with his colleagues in Congress.

After Weiner proposed the idea in a television interview, I spoke with Greg Meeks of Queens.

“Well, I’m not for getting rid of earmarks; I believe in transparency,” Meeks said. “But I think what some people are calling earmarks is [money] critical to some important projects in the district. And nobody knows my district better than I.”

It would be "almost impossible" to fund "vital" projects if the district were dependent on the president or a federal agency to decide where money should go, Meeks said.

“If you look at trying to rebuild downtown Jamaica, that’s where you’ll find earmarks,” he said. “We had flooding, for example, in Springfield Gardens, and it was an earmark that helped the city repair some of the sewer system problems.”

If there were no such things as earmarks, Meeks thinks his district would be “substantially” affected.

Steve Kornacki thinks John Edwards missed the chance to make his endorsement matter.

Jennifer Rubin reviews what John McCain can learn from the Clinton campaign about running against Barack Obama. 

Despite last night's endorsement, John Edwards probably won't be Barack Obama's running mate.

Hillary Clinton respects Edwards, but...

Obama apologized for calling a reporter "sweetie."

Cindy McCain had millions of dollars in a mutual fund that had holdings in Sudan, but she just sold them.

The issue of race in the presidential campaign has trickled down to a congressional race in Albany.

Council members running for higher office send member items to groups outside their district, then reap donations from employees and board
members of those groups, the New York Sun reports.

City Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo is under investigation.

Health risks may or may not be caused by artificial turf, which will be allowed in city parks .

David Paterson may not give out millions of dollars worth of member items.

Paterson proposed legislation that would put more oversight on doctors.

Unlike Michael Bloomberg, Paterson thinks the Moynihan station project should be turned over to the Port Authority.

Bloomberg said his pool of discretionary money was no secret.

Unions are “flexing their muscles in the capital to a degree not seen in years,” writes Danny Hakim and Nick Confessore.

“The nightmare is if you have a governor who is the same party as the Assembly and the Senate,” said Danny Donohue, president of the Civil Service Employees Association.

And the New York Post reporters stalk Ashley Alexandra Dupree, who came into the city yesterday.

CBS has just announced plans to acquire online media company, CNET, in a deal worth $1.8 billion.

The press release says: "The acquisition will make CBS one of the 10 most popular Internet companies in the United States, with a combined 54 million unique users per month, and approximately 200 million users worldwide."

Most of you probably know CNET.com, the Web site that breaks news about online and tech industries.

They're also the purveyors of ZDNet, GameSpot.com, TV.com, mp3.com, CNET news.com, UrbanBaby, CHOW, Search.com, BNET, MySimon and TechRepublic.

Full press release follows, and thanks to PaidContent.org, where we first read the news (you can find some more analysis of the deal there, and we'll come back to this when we've had a chance to think it through a bit).

CBS to Become a Top Ten U.S. Internet Company with Unparalleled Content and Reach, Boasting Approximately 200 Million Monthly Unique Users Worldwide

NEW YORK and SAN FRANCISCO, May 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CBS Corporation CBS-A CBS has entered into an agreement to acquire CNET Networks, Inc., it was announced today by Leslie Moonves, President and Chief Executive Officer, CBS Corporation. Under the terms of the agreement, CBS will make a cash tender offer for all issued and outstanding shares of CNET Networks for $11.50 per share, representing an equity value of approximately $1.8 billion. The acquisition will make CBS one of the 10 most popular Internet companies in the United States, with a combined 54 million unique users per month, and approximately 200 million users worldwide.

"There are very few opportunities to acquire a profitable, growing, well-managed Internet company like CNET Networks," said Moonves. "CBS stands for premium content and unparalleled reach, and CNET Networks will add a tremendous platform to extend our complementary entertainment, news, sports, music and information content to a whole new global audience. Together, CBS and CNET Networks will have significant additional exposure to the fastest- growing advertising sector and can accelerate our growth through a number of new content, promotion and advertising initiatives. We could not be more pleased with the prospect of adding CNET Networks and its tremendous team of people to the CBS family. I look forward to working with Quincy Smith, Neil Ashe and the considerable combined talent at both companies, as we build upon our success."

Based in San Francisco, CNET Networks owns many of the Internet's leading entertainment, news and information sites including CNET, ZDNet, GameSpot.com, TV.com, mp3.com, CNET news.com, UrbanBaby, CHOW, Search.com, BNET, MySimon and TechRepublic. The company, which reported significant profits in 2007 on revenues of $406 million, has a large international footprint, particularly in China.

Upon closing, CNET Networks' sites will be combined with CBS's stable of dynamic and growing interactive businesses. These include CBS.com, CBSSports.com, CBSCollegeSports.com, MaxPreps.com, CBSNews.com, last.fm, Wallstrip, MobLogic, CBS Radio and CBS Television Stations digital media platforms, and the distribution network of the CBS Audience Network, which is made up of more than 300 partner Web sites and reaches 82% of all online users in the United States.

"The core businesses of CNET Networks and CBS Interactive represent near perfect category symmetry in premium online content," said Quincy Smith, President, CBS Interactive. "Together we will have a terrific opportunity to not only grow our established businesses, but to build new attractive verticals of content as well. This is the beginning of an era for both CBS and CNET Networks; plus, it's going to be great to work with Neil and his team, many of whom I have known for many years."

"We're thrilled to join CBS and combine our interactive media experience with CBS's world-class content," said Neil Ashe, Chief Executive Officer, CNET Networks, Inc. "CNET Networks operates some of the most important premium online brands, serving the most sought after online audiences. Today's announcement brings together two organizations that complement each other and working with Leslie, Quincy and the talented people at CBS, we look forward to taking our business and our brands to the next level."

"We look forward to completing the acquisition of CNET Networks and the terrific benefits it brings to CBS as Quincy, Neil and their combined teams build upon our success," Moonves concluded. "At the same time our strong cash flow allows us to pay among the highest dividends in the industry, and we are committed to continue to pay our attractive dividend to return value to shareholders."

The Board of Directors of CNET Networks has unanimously approved the merger agreement and unanimously recommends that CNET Networks stockholders accept the tender offer and tender their shares.

The transaction is subject to customary conditions and is expected to be completed in the third quarter of this year.

About CBS Corporation

CBS Corporation is a mass media company with constituent parts that reach back to the beginnings of the broadcast industry, as well as newer businesses that operate on the leading edge of the media industry. The Company, through its many and varied operations, combines broad reach with well-positioned local businesses, all of which provide it with an extensive distribution network by which it serves audiences and advertisers in all 50 states and key international markets. It has operations in virtually every field of media and entertainment, including broadcast television (CBS and The CW - a joint venture between CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment), cable television (Showtime and CBS College Sports Network), local television (CBS Television Stations), television production and syndication (CBS Paramount Network Television and CBS Television Distribution), radio (CBS Radio), advertising on out-of-home media (CBS Outdoor), publishing (Simon & Schuster), interactive media (CBS Interactive), music (CBS Records), licensing and merchandising (CBS Consumer Products), video/DVD (CBS Home Entertainment), in- store media (CBS Outernet) and motion pictures (CBS Films). For more information, log on to www.cbscorporation.com.

About CNET Networks, Inc.

CNET Networks, Inc. is a global interactive media company whose leading brands collectively attract more than 160 million people each month, making it the 10th largest Internet network on the Web. The Company builds Web sites focused on the information and entertainment people crave, such as gaming, music, entertainment, technology, business, food, and parenting, and its premier brands include BNET, CNET, GameSpot, TV.com and CHOW. Founded in 1992, CNET Networks is headquartered in San Francisco, California. The Company also operates internationally in countries including Australia, China, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking information about an agreement between CBS and CNET Networks, Inc. All statements in this release, other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward- looking statements within the meaning of section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward- looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that are difficult to predict which could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from these statements. These risks, uncertainties and other factors include, among others: the satisfaction of conditions to completing the transaction contemplated by the agreement between CBS and CNET Networks; that the transaction may not be consummated on the proposed terms and schedule, if at all; the possibility that expected benefits may not materialize as expected; the effect of the transaction on the customers and suppliers of CNET Networks; changes in technology and its effect on competition in the industries in which CBS and CNET Networks operate; changes in applicable laws and regulations; other domestic and global economic, business, competitive and/or other regulatory factors affecting the respective businesses of CBS and CNET Networks generally; and other factors described in the news releases and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including but not limited to the most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed by each of CBS and CNET Networks. The forward-looking statements included in this release are made only as of the date of this release, and under section 27A of the Securities Act and section 21E of the Exchange Act, CBS and CNET Networks do not have any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

Important Additional Information: The tender offer described herein has not commenced. The description contained herein is neither an offer to purchase nor a solicitation of an offer to sell shares of CNET Networks. At the time the tender offer is commenced, Ten Acquisition Corp. and CBS intend to file a Tender Offer Statement on Schedule TO containing an offer to purchase, forms of letters of transmittal and other documents relating to the tender offer and CNET Networks intends to file a Solicitation/Recommendation Statement on Schedule 14D-9 with respect to the tender offer. CBS and CNET Networks intend to mail these documents to the stockholders of CNET Networks. These documents will contain important information about the tender offer and stockholders of CNET Networks are urged to read them carefully when they become available. Stockholders of CNET Networks will be able to obtain a free copy of these documents (when they become available) at www.cbs.com and www.cnet.com and the Web site maintained by the Securities and Exchange Commission at http://www.sec.gov/.

Chloë Sevigny has turned into an "Eco-Nazi" with her anti-plastic-bag ways. [The Cut]

Gossip Girl News! The guy who plays Dan's father, Rufus, thinks Dan and Serena make a "a very hot couple" in real and Gossip worlds, which is kind of ew. Meanwhile, GG's lead torturer Michelle Trachtenberg was in fact the torturee in her private Los Angeles high school. [People, Daily Intel]

Arthur Sulzberger Jr. has moved into an apartment on West 66th Street after getting separated from his wife, Gail Gregg, who for now occupies the home they shared together on West 64th Street. [P6]

Eliot Spitzer will be issuing campaign contribution refunds to his top supporters. [P6]

Marie Claire is reportedly just one of five magazines being considered for the coveted Project Runway sponsorship spot currently held by Elle. The others are Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Harper's Bazaar and In Style, three of which are published by Lifetime owner Hearst Corporation. [WWD]

And in case you live under a rock, Angelina Jolie is officially pregnant with twins. [NY Daily News]

In a recent speech, Senator John McCain reiterated his support for mandatory caps on greenhouse gasses and for a cap and trade policy for carbon dioxide. He also criticized President Bush’s lack of leadership on global warming. It is good news to see some consensus among all the Presidential candidates on the issue of global warming and a definite step forward.

Two other elements of McCain’s climate and energy policy are a little less positive. First is his support for the suspension of the gasoline tax for the summer. I’m with Mike Bloomberg on this—the tax suspension is one of the most idiotic proposals of this endless presidential campaign. If you want to reduce production of greenhouse gasses you should not be lowering the price of gasoline. If you want to keep our aging highway bridges from falling down you might not want to defund the highway trust fund. Second is McCain’s support of nuclear power. He is not alone in pushing nuclear power. While no one argues, as they did in the 1950’s, that nuclear generated electricity would be too cheap to meter, many scientists are attracted to nuclear energy’s carbon free properties. This includes a number of my colleague’s here at Columbia University.

Most of the electricity in France is generated by nuclear reactors. China is rapidly building both coal and nuclear power plants. Both of these nations have central governments with a great deal more authority over local governments than ours. Despite the efforts of Vice President Cheney to consolidate power in the White House, the United States remains a federal system with states retaining a great deal of authority. Local governments in the United States and even communities are seen as important players in our political process. While all local government authority must be granted by states, in this country, local communities have strong veto rights over land development. That is why the nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada may never open. That is why there are no Wal-Marts in New York City. That is why no nuclear power plants have been built in the United States in a generation.

While the nuclear industry is desperately promoting a revival, no one wants a nuclear power plant next door. Nuclear power plants require a great deal of water for cooling and so they tend to be located in the same place we are building condos and new beach clubs. My own view is that investing a great deal of resources in a technology that is so controversial is a waste of time and money. Even if you set aside the issues of waste, vulnerability to terrorism and risks from incompetent operation, the politics of power plant siting should be enough to apply the brakes to nuclear development.

In this region, LILCO’s customers are still paying the costs of building and never operating the Shoreham nuclear power plant. There are constant calls to shut down the Indian Point nuclear power plant north of the City. Many of America’s nuclear power plants are approaching the age where they must be renovated or decommissioned and taken out of service.

Nuclear advocates respond by saying that when brown-outs are common and we don’t have enough electricity to run our homes, we will turn to nuclear power out of desperation. I don’t think so. Moreover, why not develop other, less complicated, more decentralized and maybe even less capital-intensive power sources? It is not that I lack confidence in nuclear technology, it’s that I think it is not politically feasible at the scale we need to construct. Nuclear power’s appeal is that it is available and off the shelf. Its problem is that in our decentralized political system no one wants it next door and every community has the power to veto it.

We need to develop a carbon- free energy source. With Nissan Motors announcing that it is ready to mass market the first electric car, the need for renewable sources of electricity has become more urgent. The issue of climate change creates a crisis that is global in scale. The future of our economy depends on the development of sustainable, renewable and probably solar-based energy. It will be interesting to see if our energy future develops as a theme during this campaign. I wonder if an issue as central as this can compete for media attention with the stuff we end up hearing about? I mean isn’t more important to know who Hamas favors in this election, and how old can someone be and still serve as President? How does the future of the planet and our economic well being compete with those key issues? I guess we’re about to find out.

A study conducted on behalf of the Bloomberg administration finds that synthetic turf fields in the city pose no health risk. [NY Times]

The MTA is giving 30 buses a makeover as part of its new Select Bus Service trial to streamline service. [NY Times]

New Jersey residents want a Powerhouse Arts District not a Toll Brothers development. [NY Times]

Alternate side parking is suspended indefinitely in Park Slope. [NY Times]

As foreclosures mount, condo owners in the buildings hit hardest find themselves arguing over maintenance costs. [NY Times]

"If you prick a contractor does he not bleed, hopefully not on the white marble counter?" [NY Times]

Gimme Shelter: Dick Cavett is selling a 77-acre tract of ocean front property in Montauk for $30 million; Bob Weinstein has paid $1 million for an apartment near his home at the Beresford. [NY Post]

Renovations begin at 100 Church Street, a commercial building that has been half vacant since September 11. [NY Sun]

New York City luxury buildings are flaunting "abs of steel." [NY Sun]

John Edwards’ endorsement of Barack Obama matters because the media is treating it like it does. Twenty-four hours after Hillary Clinton celebrated a 41-point landslide victory in West Virginia, the press now has fresh reason to speculate about a final death blow to her campaign, creating a narrative that could unleash the decisive superdelegate flood the Obama campaign has been waiting for.

But, really, is this huge—or even surprising—news? Obama was going to win the nomination with or without Edwards’ backing.

For the past 14 weeks, as Edwards sat on the sidelines, Obama has turned himself into the inevitable nominee. On countless occasions in that time, rumors of an impending Edwards endorsement sprouted, but they all quickly died. Only now, with Obama in firm mathematical control of the Democratic race, and Clinton playing out the string, has he finally decided to speak up. He’s the guy who waits until a fourth-quarter blowout to tell you which team he’s pulling for.

There were plenty of moments when Edwards’ endorsement could have had a meaningful impact on the outcome of the race. But this would have involved a level of risk that Edwards, evidently, was unwilling to assume.

The first opportunity came as soon as he ended his own campaign, just after the Jan. 26 South Carolina primary and about a week ahead of Super Tuesday. In the media’s telling, Obama was the ascendant candidate in the wake of South Carolina, his support surging in the big Feb. 5 states that had long formed the backbone of Clinton’s strategy. An Edwards endorsement in this window would have been gasoline on a fire. But he stayed quiet.

Then there was the run-up to Ohio on March 4. With his string of decisive small- and midsize-state victories in February, Obama had pulled significantly ahead of Clinton in the delegate race, and her campaign appeared to be in collapse. Only a convincing Ohio win could save her. What a perfect moment for Edwards, who fared better in Ohio’s 2004 primary than in almost any other state, to rally the state’s working-class voters to Obama’s side. But nothing.

A similar moment presented itself before Pennsylvania, with Clinton—and the media—openly challenging Obama’s ability to connect with and relate to white working-class voters. But Edwards did nothing, and Clinton won. The battleground shifted to North Carolina and Indiana, the ideal setup for an Edwards endorsement: his home state and a rust-belt state. Still not a peep.

Obama broke even with Clinton on Super Tuesday, ran off a dozen straight wins in mid-to-late February, weathered the Ohio and Pennsylvania storms, and then last week fared better than anyone expected in North Carolina and Indiana. And it was last week that was the decisive moment in this campaign, the night it became clear that Clinton had not made a dent in Obama’s coalition. He would win the pledged-delegate race commandingly. He would win the popular vote by any fair measure. And he would win over most of the remaining superdelegates—a steady stream that accelerated the morning after North Carolina and Indiana. The race was ending, and there was nothing that anyone—not Clinton, not the media, and certainly not John Edwards—could do about it.

It was in this context that Edwards finally broke his silence and took sides, the flock leading the shepherd. All Edwards did on Wednesday was to endorse the presumptive Democratic nominee, and there really was never any question whether he’d do that. During his campaign, he said over and over again that he’d happily back Clinton or Obama if either of them won the nomination. Since he dropped out, the suspense has been about whether he’d publicly choose one of them before the Democratic rank-and-file did. He didn’t.

Certainly, there are signs that he was at least somewhat torn between Obama and Clinton, as much because of their deficiencies as their positive attributes. For most of his campaign, he aimed his sharpest attacks at Clinton, shredding her for her ties to lobbyists and the establishment nature of her campaign. Most memorably, he ridiculed her as an obstacle to fundamental change in a debate the Saturday night before New Hampshire. That might have been a mostly tactical move—his strategy at that point called for forcing her to drop out after New Hampshire and securing a one-on-one race against Obama for himself—but his words also revealed the depth of his disdain for the way Hillary and Bill Clinton play politics.

By the end of his campaign, though, it was also clear that Edwards had doubts about Obama. Rather than rushing to his defense (as he did in that New Hampshire debate), Edwards derided Obama in a subsequent debate for all of his “present” votes in the Illinois State Legislature. Anonymous Edwards associates were soon quoted in news stories making clear that Edwards was unconvinced about Obama’s depth and leadership skills. It also seemed, eventually, that Elizabeth Edwards came to favor Clinton, mostly because of her health care plan, which is more in line with Edwards’ than Obama’s.

But a bigger factor in Edwards’ reluctance might simply have been the risk to his clout and reputation that taking sides represented. Had he made a big show of endorsing Obama before, say, Pennsylvania, Obama’s loss would have been read, in part, as a sign of limited clout on Edwards’ part. Why risk the kind of humiliation that Al Gore suffered in 2004, when his endorsement of Howard Dean miserably backfired?

And anyway, perhaps Edwards recognized that, even more than usual, endorsements don’t seem to matter to voters this year. In general, high-profile endorsements help create or sustain momentum. But the Obama and Clinton coalitions both seem impervious to momentum. Through good news and bad, they have remained stubbornly stuck in place—as West Virginia affirmed on Tuesday.

If there’s no chance it will really affect the outcome, then there’s really no reason to endorse until the outcome is certain. It seems that that’s exactly what John Edwards was waiting for.

The Media Mob has learned that longtime New York Times editor Mike Oreskes is leaving the company for the Associated Press.

Mr. Oreskes, who is currently the editor of the Times-owned International Herald Tribune, has been working in one capacity or another under the Times umbrella for the past 27 years. Before he took his position as executive editor of IHT in 2005, he was the deputy managing editor of The Times for Bill Keller, and an assistant managing editor under Howell Raines before that.

At the AP, he'll become the managing editor of the wire service's U.S. News department, a newly created department there.

Update! AP has confirmed our report with a press release. Here it is:

AP names Michael Oreskes Managing Editor for U.S. NewsThe Associated Press today named Michael Oreskes, executive editor of the International Herald Tribune in Paris, to be AP Managing Editor for U.S. News.

In the newly expanded position, Oreskes will oversee all U.S. news from The Associated Press, from state bureaus to national political coverage, for both U.S. and world audiences.

“We’re delighted to have an editor with Michael’s breadth take up this important new position in the AP,’’ said Kathleen Carroll, executive editor. “His experience at every level of coverage, in every format for audiences in the United States and across the globe, makes him uniquely suited for this position.”

Oreskes, 53, has served as executive editor of the International Herald Tribune since 2005. Previously, he was deputy managing editor of The New York T