New York

It has now been almost a half century since the idea of a global and interconnected biosphere was popularized by environmental pioneers such as Rachel Carson and Barry Commoner. It's been about four decades since astronauts broadcast the first images of our small, fragile bright blue planet from outer space. Until then, the idea of an interdependent planet was an abstraction. Those photos made the idea of our connectivity quite real.

Today, the issue of global sustainability has moved front and center in our political process, and it is reflected in the way we think about economic development, poverty eradication and even in the way we live.  read more »

One of the simplest things we can do to improve our productivity and economic well being is to increase the efficiency of our use of energy. We are so wasteful that there is an enormous amount of low hanging fruit. As New York state begins to get serious about this, we should look west to California, for a place that really knows how to make the most out of a kilowatt.

Since 1981, I've taught public management at Columbia, and I am not one of those people who believe that government is incompetent and only the private sector is efficient and effective. Some work is best performed by government, some by nonprofits and some by the private sector.  read more »

Expect June 30, 2009, to be a big day for the national housing market, assuming that people still listen to James J. Cramer and his manic economic musings. In his column for New York, Mr. Cramer lists not one, but 10 (10!) reasons why the sales market worm will finally turn, citing, among other favorable developments, the slow down in building development, the stabilization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the bottoming out of troubled markets in places like California and Florida.

But can this man be trusted? After all, this is the same James J. Cramer who told his viewers on Tuesday, March 11, “Bear Stearns is fine! Do not take your money out.” Three days later and the rest is history. (Classic YouTube clip above.)

So, home buyers, beware: June 30, 2009 may (or may not) be the day to buy that dream house.

New Jersey's 2007 median housebold income of $67,035 bested New York's by $13,521 in 2007, according to Census estimates released earlier this week, roughly the same difference as in 2006.

Northern Jersey likely lifted the state's median, much as downstate New York (read: Manhattan, Long Island and Westchester) lifts the rest of the Empire State. Somerset County in central Northern Jersey, for instance, had a median household income nearly three times that of the Bronx, at $97,658.

Eliot Spitzer's 2006 campaign message: "Bring some passion back to Albany."

Quinnipiac released a poll this morning that shows Rudy Giuliani's support in New Yokr may not be as anemic as the Marist and Siena polls from the last few days have shown.

In this survey, Giulaini and John McCain both have 30 percent of the support of New York Republicans. Perhaps more importantly, Giulaini supporters appear more committed to the former mayor than McCain's supporters--71 percent of Giulaini say that are "not too likely" or "not likely at all" to switch candidates, while only 46 percent of McCain supporters say the same.

That could mean that if Giulaini somehow wrangles a win in Florida, hometown Republican support could congeal around him again.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton's lead among overall Democrats is still very strong--she leads Barack Obama 51-21. However, after last night's debate and Saturday's South Carolina primary, those numbers seem at high risk to shift before the February 5 New York primary.

Full release will more details after the jump.  read more »

The Census estimates out last week showed double-digit percentage growth in the South and the West since 2000. But in the Northeast--and in the Midwest--population growth was paltry.

The population of the Northeastern United States increased only 2 percent from April 1, 2000 through July 1, 2007. In the Midwest, the increase was 3.1 percent. (In the U.S. entirely, it was 7.2 percent.)

Part of the reason for the sluggish growth in the Northeast, as The New York Times noted last week, was higher housing prices. But, one has to ask, what about the Midwest, where housing prices are lower than in faster-growing places like Florida and California? Though it might be tempting for West Coasters to explain the downward population trends in the Midwest and Northeast as an aversion to cold weather, the two regions have more in common than chilly climates.  read more »

Eliot Spitzer just nominated James G. Sheehan to serve as New York State Medicaid Inspector General.

Medicaid is the state's most expensive program, and Spitzer's effort to reduce the cost of the program led to a bruising budget fight with health care groups who engaged in a highly nasty exchange of negative ads against him.

From the governor's statement on Sheehan:

"As a career prosecutor specializing in complex health care enforcement and recovery matters, Mr. Sheehan has experience rooting out fraud that dramatically drives up costs and severely threatens the efficiency and delivery of health care services."

More on Sheehan after the jump.  read more »

-- Azi Paybarah

10:30 a.m. Council members and Safe Horizon will launch a domestic violence public awareness campaign at the Red Room in City Hall.

10:30 a.m. The Quinnipiac University Polling Institute will release results of a poll of New York State voters asking their opinions about Governor Eliot Spitzer and other statewide officials.  read more »

11 a.m. The Bronx Zoo will host a blood drive with the New York Blood Center in the Bronx Zoo parking lot on Southern Boulevard and 182nd Street.

• Ellis Island ferry building to reopen after half-century.
[NY Post]
• Spitzer plans overhaul of State Liquor Authority.
[NY Post]
• Yankees-themed fitness clubs to open in 2008.
[NY Post]
• City suffers from 'acute' shortage of playing fields.
[NY Times]
• Zoning changes to protect scale in West Harlem.
[NY Times]
• New Yorkers facing greater scrutiny for mortgages.
[NY Times]
• Tishman Speyer plays nice in Stuy Town, Cooper Village.
[NY Times]
• Home choices because of shopping.
[NY Times]
• Corcoran, Elliman not participating in REBNY listings.
[NY Times]
• Borrowers, beware, in today's mortgage market.
[NY Times]
• The skylight broke: Who's responsible?
[NY Times]
• Replacing windows in a New York condo.
[NY Times]
• Borrowers 'not powerless' as ARMs adjust rates.
[NY Times]
• Retail in the shadow of Opening Day at Yankee Stadium.
[NY Times]
• Roving play draws upon city real estate and romance.
[Newsday]
• When--and where--will subprime-mortgage story end.
[WSJ]
• How to get a table at popular restaurants.
[WSJ]

Did we miss any New York City real estate news this morning? Please send along tips and links.

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This chart is from the state's temporary lobbying commission latest report, showing how much it cost 5,117 registered lobbyists last year to represent the interests of their 3,277 clients to state lawmakers. (Easily identifiable rend in lobbyist spending over the years: up!)

Elsewhere in the report are the details 41 settlements the commission has reached with lobbyists who ran afoul of lobbying irregularities including $75,000 from Madison Square Garden for providing "public officials with complimentary attendance in a hospitality suite" at sporting events, and $10,000 from the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of New York for "a meal expense on March 29, 2004 in the amount of $279.75 for three individuals, at least one of whom was a public official.

Et cetera.

-- Azi Paybarah

Saturday

7 a.m. Congressman Joseph Crowley will host a political breakfast before the St. Patrick's Day Parade at TGIFriday's, 47 East 42nd Street.

9 a.m. Bill Perkins will host a forum on the New York State health budget to disseminate the facts about the Governor's Executive Budget for Health Care at the Amalgamated Bank, 564 West 125th Street.

9:30 a.m. Mayor Michael Bloomberg will speak at the funeral service for Auxiliary Police Officer Nicholas Pekearo at Redden's Funeral Home, 325 West 14th Street between 8th and 9th avenues.  read more »

There's a new king in town, but he lives in Minnesota: "Deuce Seven... came to the East Coast for the first time on January 10, arriving with a backpack of spray cans he'd stolen from a Minnesota Home Depot, some painted boards, and an open invitation to sleep on a Brooklyn couch. The lanky 21-year-old spent three and a half weeks... painting New York. Then he went home."

[Voice]

This weather sucks. But, always look on the bright side of life, eh? The Shake Shack in Madison Square Park reopens in less than five days.

[Eater]

Apparently, there's a Communist Party headquarters in Chelsea, and it's embracing real-estate. What does this mean for Communism? More importantly, what does this mean for irony?

[BlogChelsea via Curbed]

Finally, though The Real Estate has barely a drop of Irish blood (hell, one of us is of English descent and another celebrates Columbus Day), we would like you to know: McSorley's opens at 11 a.m. tomorrow. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

- Tom Acitelli

Here is recent footage of Christine Quinn last week discussing the late Queens Democratic County Leader Tom Manton and how she wanted to march with him in New York's St. Patrick's Day Parade, but didn't.

"On last St. Patrick's Day I had really hoped that Tom, my father and I would get to march together and it didn't work out. And I was so afraid that I was going to disappoint Tom. And I was really sick over it and I just felt terrible over that it didn't work out."

But later, according to Quinn, Manton told her he was fully in favor of her decision to skip the main St. Patrick's Day parade, whose organizers objected to the participation of self-identified gay groups, and told her to "give 'em hell."

This year's St. Patrick's Day parade is Saturday. Quinn is planning to skip it and march in a parade in Dublin instead.

-- Azi Paybarah

Talk about unsolicited praise.

Referring to the notion that the 2008 Democrats are more supportive of gay rights than the Republicans, influential consultant and gay rights activist Ethan Geto offered me the following caveat:

"They are going to be so much more supportive than the Republican candidates, unless we have an anomaly -- and it's Rudy Giuliani. Because I must say, Rudy Giuliani is pretty damned gay friendly. I was a lobbyist during his administration on gay rights issues, and Giuliani -- I couldn't get Vallone (then City Council Speaker Peter Vallone) to sign off on the Domestic Partnership Bill, because he was afraid Giuliani was going to oppose him and leave him hanging out there and make him look bad - and Giuliani went and took the leadership."

UPDATE: Ben has a fascinating memo from the Empire State Pride Agenda detailing Giuliani's pragmatic "accommodation" with gay New York.

-- Jason Horowitz

8 a.m. Governor Eliot Spitzer will host the New York City Council Breakfast at the governor's office, 633 Third Avenue.

8:30 a.m. The New York Institute of Technology hosts its annual academic conference, "New York City: Global Village" at the NYIT's New Technology Building, 16 West 61st Street.  read more »

9 a.m. The New School hosts a panel discussion on challenges to conventional economic wisdom at 55 West 13th Street near Sixth Avenue.

After Rep. Charlie Rangel reportedly called Eliot Spitzer's budget "disastrous," a spokeswoman for Spitzer emailed this response:

"The Governor's budget is good for the people of New York and New York City who will benefit from an historic investments in education and a move to patient centered health care. No amount of distortive rhetoric or advertising will cause the Governor to back down from the core reforms and necessary reality check embodied in this budget."

-- Azi Paybarah

Location: What sort of reaction have you gotten from New York brokers about the $10 fee for placing  read more »

The Spitzer for President chatter, which I touched on here, gets a bit of new life at the tail end of this article in the Sun about why the governor is undecided about moving up New York's presidential primaries.

Mr. Spitzer could be waiting for other large states to make their move before he proceeds. By keeping his options open, he also preserves a bargaining chip that could come in handy in his dealings with the national Democratic Party.

Mr. Spitzer, who is widely believed to harbor presidential ambitions, also must be considering the impact an earlier date would have on his own chances in six or 10 years.

"It's not just about Hillary," said a Democratic political consultant, Hank Sheinkopf, who was an adviser to President Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign and also worked for Mr. Spitzer's first successful bid for attorney general in 1998. "To presume that's how he's thinking about it is wrong. He's thinking about it in a larger context."

-- Azi Paybarah

If the extra $1 billion surplus announced by the state Senate weren't a big enough hurdle to Eliot Spitzer's plan to reduce health care spending, how about this letter from the American Cancer Society and other groups who concerned over a loophole that'll allow smoking in the casinos built in the Catskills.

"We believe the compact's failure to meaningfully address smoking is backsliding and a bad deal for the health of New Yorkers."

The letter goes on to say:

"Your strong record as Attorney General in combating tobacco's threat makes this situation even more disappointing and uncomfortable for us."  read more »

The full letter is after the jump.

-- Azi Paybarah

The Health Care Education Project, a group formed by 1199 SEIU and the Greater New York Hosptial Association, just put out a campaign-style point-by-point reponse to some of Eliot Spitzer's comments earlier today about health care.

"We support Governor Spitzer's desire to reform New York's health care system, but we think he is going about it the wrong way. Sadly, the Governor's budget comes nowhere close to insuring 2.6 million New Yorkers."  read more »

Full statement after the jump.

-- Azi Paybarah

Andrew Cuomo has just announced that he has hired longtime good government activist Blair Horner as a special advisor in the Policy and Public Integrity Unit.

Horner, a registered lobbyist with NYPIRG, will oversee "New York State's first-ever comprehensive Internet database tracking donors, lobbyists, special interests, state contracts, and elected officials, and the links between them."  read more »

Full statement after the jump.

-- Azi Paybarah

A reader passed on a notably early campaign announcement for 2008 state Senate candidate Tony Herbert, whose candidacy officially gets underway with a glitzy fund-raiser next month at Jay-Z's 40/40 Club.

Herbert's candidacy marks not just one of the first local 2008 campaign kick-offs I know of, but -- after his recent, unsuccessful run against City Council member Tish James as a Republican -- it represents a return to his roots as a Democrat. Sort of.

From an email to potential supporters:

"For decades, our community has blindly voted for any candidate based on party affiliation. This has led to our community being ignored by the same elected officials we voted into office. As long as we don't make our elected officials EARN our vote, we can't expect them to respect our needs in return! "

Herbert's letter (dated Feb. 15, for some reason) is after the jump.  read more »

-- Azi Paybarah

Bush and Spitzer Bleed City Hospitals  read more »

Bush and Spitzer Bleed City Hospitals  read more »

Bush and Spitzer Bleed City Hospitals  read more »

It's deadline day! That is, for commercial real estate's most desperately desired award, The Real Estate Board of New York's Most Ingenious Deal of the Year.

All the printer jams and panicked trips to Staples will be over shortly. At 5 p.m., brokerages all around the city will all breathe one giant sigh, after polishing those strictly-ordered applications (there are 12 rules in all, which includes using only 8 1/2 x 11-inch margins with a 12-point font size that's double-spaced).

After this, it goes up to review by the very-secret jury (secret in order to avoid "conflict," says the app). The top three awards will be announced on April 17 at the 101 Club.

- John Koblin

As an astute reader notes, state Senator Ruben Diaz Sr., who in 1994 moved to prevent the Gay Games from coming to New York on the grounds that they could lead to an increase in AIDS, seconded the comptroller nomination moments ago of Martha Stark.

Stark is openly gay.

-- Azi Paybarah

• A megastar is in the market for a manager for his (or her) four estates. The job requires flexibility and thick skin--plus there will be "VERY long hours," renovation, and apparently interior design. Sounds fun, no? [Gawker]
• Late last year, Bloomberg decided that New York would sustainably have 9 million complainers and money managers and Bikram yoga addicts by 2030. Architects and planners ask: What about the housing? The construction? The money? (The space for yoga?) [Streetsblog]
• Residential real estate in Manhattan isn't as costly as Fashion Week real estate: Puff Daddy has to pay $150,000 per day for his Cipriani venue. [Forbes, via Luxist]
• Great News of the Day: Donald "Little Ratner" Trump won't develop in Brooklyn. Yet. [B. Paper]
• $30 is a tiny price to pay to pretend that you're Donald Judd in his five-floor home-studio on Spring Street. The phrases "SoHo Historic Cast-Iron District" and "500 works" are both pretty exciting [see above]. [Apartment Therapy]
- Max Abelson
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You got to wonder what's really behind the public campaigning for the state comptroller position, a job which is quietly being sewn up behind closed doors.

But at a press conference on the City Hall steps a few moments ago, supporters of Assemblyman Felix Ortiz gave it their best shot, saying that electing him would bring "balance" and "representation" not just to the face of Albany, but to the places where the state pensions are invested.

Why hadn't previous comptrollers, most recently a Democrat from Queens and an African-American from Manhattan, invested more in the Hispanic communities?

"It's the same old same old same old," said Peter Fontanes, chairman of the New York State Hispanic American and Migrant Association. "Photo-ops, but when it comes down to the nitty gritty, as they say, it doesn't happen."  read more »

I've been wondering what, if any,

New York's Senators said the president's health care cuts are different in substance and spirit than Eliot Spitzer's proposed Health care cuts.

Schumer said he didn't agree with all of Spitzer's cuts, but declined to specify which ones.

Hillary singled out the president's mulit-million-dollar cut to the Graduate Medical Education program as harmful to a program that keeps medical students heading to New York. But when I asked Hillary about Spitzer's aim to cut the same program, she said "I don't know."

-- Azi Paybarah

Speculators and new construction have driven the national homeowner vacancy rate to its highest level ever, according to the Census Bureau.

The rate that measures how many vacant homes are on the sales market hit 2.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006, up from 2.0 percent a year earlier. Last year marked the first time the rate went above 2.0 percent. The Wall Street Journal on Monday reported that the spike was due partly to speculators trying to cash out of the housing market and partly to new construction that will have to slow for the vacancy rate to ebb.

The Real Estate couldn't find the homeownership rate for New York State or New York City. If anyone knows if such info exists--and where it can be found--please email. (The Census Bureau pegged the Northeast's rate at 2.0 percent.)

Here's the Census Bureau's release (PDF).

- Tom Acitelli

Here's a statement from the state's Homeland Security Office on that Maureen O'Connell flier I posted earlier:

"It is completely inappropriate for a political candidate to use a falsified state seal in the context of a political campaign. Politicizing state security issues is inappropriate and trivializes the law enforcement efforts of New York's office of Homeland Security. We direct the campaign and candidate to the following passage from New York's penal law that identifies such actions as arguably illegal."

-- Azi Paybarah

• This weekend's Times expose on evil rental agents [above] is a reminder that Manhattan real estate is "akin to the X-Files," and that brokers may or may not be "soulless beasts who [don't] deserve any consideration." [Property Grunt]
• South Harlem has changed "for good," but not necessarily for better. Unless you like your "old-school beauty salons" next to your "designer boutiques, and locally produced T-shirts." [New York]
• There's "a gut rehab" on the way for New York's affordable housing, all thanks to a very big fact-finding survey. [City Limits]
• Each Manhattan neighborhood will get two of those new-fangled public toilets. Where will the UES pair go? "There isn't really an appropriate Upper East Side location," says the local City Councilwoman. That's because all local bathrooms have to be covered in jewels, or maybe Playbills. [Daily Intelligencer/ N.Y., via Gothamist]
- Max Abelson
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Dennis Rivera is taking over a new super-union for national health care workers, leaving the New York-based 1199 SEIU. His replacement is George Gresham, currently the secretary-treasurer .

The major bump up for Rivera comes right when Eliot Spitzer is about to (what's Hillary's phrase for this kind of thing?) drop the hammer on health care spending in New York, and, presumably, look for more federal aid to offset some of the costs. That's where Rivera, now an official national union leader, may have an impact.

In other words, they'll be speaking to each other in slightly different negotiating positions.

Official statement after the jump.  read more »

-- Azi Paybarah

Crain's annual "Forty Under Forty" list hit stands on Monday, and the run-down on New York's younger power players includes four real estate pros. That seems a surprisingly small number, given the role real estate plays in the city's economy and in its popular imagination. Making the list are:

Andrew Mathias, 33, chief investment officer for commercial landlord SL Green.

Ryan Slack, 35, CEO of Web real-estate search engine PropertyShark.com.

Sara Mirski, 38, managing director of development at Boymelgreen Developers.

Amira Yunis, 36, executive vice president of Newmark Knight Frank Retail.

- Tom Acitelli

When I spoke with Bill de Blasio the other day about the mayor's plan to end "play to play" and tweak campaign finance laws, I quoted him saying this:

"I'd like to remind people, and Dick Dadey will confirm this, the toughest campaign finance law in the country was passed by the New York City Council. It was not started by a mayor. It was not started by an independent commission. It was created by the City Council."

I didn't ask Dadey for his own take at the time. But the mere mention of his name in conjunction with de Blasio's criticism of the mayor's proposal brought him in for some sharp criticism in our comments section.

Here, via email, is Dadey's response:

"In regards to Citizens Union position on pay-to-play contributions, I would like to set the record straight since many of the comments in the posts are factually incorrect.

"Citizens Union supports the adoption of strong legislation that would 'restrict' political contributions from those who do business with the city and has advocated for such reforms consistently over the past several years. It is our hope that the Council will soon propose and pass such legislation that the Mayor would then sign into law. We believe this is a preferable and more effective way to achieve the goal of addressing the issue of 'pay to play" contributors than if the Campaign Finance Board were to pass on its own a rule implementing such. The City Council has played an important and necessary role in creating and strengthening the city's campaign finance program. We feel that the Council has missed past opportunities to strengthen it even further, but one of the reasons that New York has a model national program is because of the City Council's long commitment to it. The other reason is because of the way in which the law has been strongly enforced and the program properly administered by the Campaign Finance Board.

"CU supports "pay to play" legislation that would be enforceable and not onerous, but would limit the influence peddling that goes on in the form of contributors who feel that in order for favorable consideration to be given to their interests - like government contracts - they need to make a contribution in order to their interests to be in play, aka "pay to play." We also believe that any legislation should not "ban" a contributor's constitutional right to participate in the political process by denying them a chance to make a contribution to a candidate of his or her choice; instead we favor setting a low limit at which a contributor could give without being subjected to a "pay to play" restriction should they have business with the city. We look forward to continued thoughtful dialogue on this critical issue."

-- Azi Paybarah

It's got a whiff of that Bastille-on-July 13, 1789 feeling. The Real Estate Board of New York sent out a letter (after the jump, below) to those attending its 111th annual banquet, this Thursday at the New York Hilton. The letter, which came with an admission ticket, implores guests to keep out the uninvited riff-raff:

You must have this ticket in order to enter the Grand Ballroom... Please help us solve the security problem that has annoyed so many REBNY members. Only those who pay the price of admission should enjoy the pleasures and opportunities that the Banquet offers.

The Real Estate will have a full report on the banquet (or, "Banquet") on Friday.  read more »

- Tom Acitelli

One thing not mentioned at Andrew Cuomo's swearing-in ceremony yesterday was the issue of Medicaid fraud, which I seem to remember being a pretty big deal around the beginning of the attorney general race.

Cuomo's spokeswoman, Wendy Katz, said confirmed that Cuomo is planning to do something fairly dramatic about it by creating a position of deputy attorney general for Medicaid fraud. Although the attorney general's office already has a solicitor general Medicaid Fraud Control Unit to tackle that issue, she said, the new position will reflect "an increase in prominence."

She didn't say who might fill the position or when it might come into being.

Cuomo perviously addressed the issue when he penned an op-ed article explaining that New York is losing 20 percent of money it recovers from Medicaid fraud because it doesn't have its own False Claims Act to protect whistle blowers.

-- Azi Paybarah

So, the outdoor inauguration is about to begin and most of New York's political dignitaries have filed into a large circular stage area behind the capitol, where they're waiting for Eliot Spitzer. It's standing-room only up front and things have an appropriately chaotic feel.

Meanwhile, there are a number of other indications today that the new governor is off to a fast start. His name has already replaced George Pataki's on the "under-contuction" signs outside the capitol. And he is up and running on the governor's website, where he has detailed the executive orders he plans to sign later today.

One interesting line, given the circumstances under which he's taking office, lays out rules for using state property:

"Individuals who are authorized by their agency or public authority to use a vehicle for personal purposes shall keep records of such use, and the value of such personal use shall be calculated and reported as personal income..."

The other brand new executive orders are here.

-- Azi Paybarah

The Real Estate launches a new feature today called Real Estate Overheard. It's about those tidbits of real estate wit and wisdom you overhear in subways, on buses, at dinner parties, aboard airplanes, etc. If you do overhear anything about New York City real estate that you'd like to share with the world, please email us with all the details - where, when, what, who, etc. Please let us know if you'd like the email to be anonymous. Overheard on the W train rumbling beneath the West 20s on Thursday evening:

Two men, one in a Jets jacket, struck up a conversation about the NFL team's playoff prospects. The conversation, then, as it often still does in New York, turned to real estate, and the non-Jets man introduced himself as a broker.

Jets Jacket: CNN said today that home sales are up while prices are down. Broker: But Manhattan, it's totally different. [Buyers] know it's an island, so there's only so many places you can go. Jets Jacket: And there's a lot of people running around with more dollars than sense. Broker [laughing]: Exactly. - Tom Acitelli

After giving his speech to state party leaders at the Sheraton today, Eliot Spitzer was asked by reporters about Alan Hevesi, who was noticeably absent from today's event.

Spitzer, still the attorney general, reminded reporters that he recused himself from his office's investigation of Hevesi, and that there were other investigations still underway. Therefore, he said, he wants to "wait and see" what happens.

It wasn't just reporters who found the Hevesi-avoidance to be odd.

One state committee member I spoke with, Judith McGowan of the 81st Assembly District in the Bronx, said, "It was not appropriate to not mention it at all. There should have been something: 'We are going through a difficult time with who shall be the comptroller of New York State. What is the rule of the people? We must think about these things. We must take them into consideration.' But they acted as if it didn't exist."

She added, "He shouldn't be removed. He should pay a fine, he should abjectly apologize. He did a really stupid thing. And it may have been an arrogant action. But does it rise to the level of negating a statewide election?"

I'm sure that and other fun topics will come up at the state Democratic Party's holiday bash, preparations for which are well underway. (See above.)

-- Azi Paybarah

One of Assemblyman Richard Brodsky's favorite targets for cross-examination (maybe the favorite), is Charles Gargano, whom he is hauling before an Assembly hearing on Monday afternoon, less than two weeks before the Empire State Development Corporation chairman is supposed to step down.

The topic: the sale of the New York State office condominium at 633 Third Avenue, which Brodsky calls in a press release "at best puzzling and at worst illegal insofar as our understanding of the fact that the required appraisal of the property was not conducted."

Mark Weinberg, a spokesman for Gargano, told The Real Estate that the transaction returned $11 million to taxpayers because new digs for ESDC in lower Manhattan will be cheaper. (The Governor's office and Comptroller's office on Third Avenue have been re-leased from the new owner until the end of 2008.) An appraisal was not required, he said, because the Third Avenue space was generic office space.

Brodsky, in response, said that,considering a new Governor is about to be sworn in, the move was "at best bizarre and at worst, it's illegal and bizarre."

Nothing mentioned in the announcement about Monday's hearing regarding Atlantic Yards, folks, but Javits, Moynihan and the Empire Zone program are on the table.

- Matthew Schuerman CORRECTION: An earlier post incorrectly said that the Governor's office would move downtown. Only ESDC is currently scheduled to move.  read more »

Speaking of DL21C, I also caught up last night with Dave Pollak, who Eliot Spitzer picked to be the new State Democratic Party co-chair along with upstate county leader June O'Neill.

Pollak describes the heirarchical structure of the DL21C group he founded as "flat" -- that is, more reliant on technology and grass roots support than on a heavy-handed leader. Sounding very much in tune with Spitzer's campaign theme of