Democratic Mayoral Candidates Forum April 3

An excellent opportunity to see the candidates in person and help make your decision on who to support as the next Mayor of New York City.
April 3, 6:30pm
St. Francis College
180 Remsen Street

Featuring
Bill deBlasio
Bill Thompson
Christine Quinn
John Liu
Sal Albanese

Sponsored by a coalition of Brooklyn-based reform Democratic clubs.

There will be another forum coming up on May 7th, sponsored by a
coalition of civic groups including the Park Slope Civic Council and
CGNA, and presumably to include candidates from other parties. More
details on that as it gets closer.

Google Finishes Off Wounded Google Reader

Well this just sucks. 

We have just announced on the Official Google Blog that we will soon retire Google Reader (the actual date is July 1, 2013). We know Reader has a devoted following who will be very sad to see it go. We're sad too.

There are two simple reasons for this: usage of Google Reader has declined, and as a company we're pouring all of our energy into fewer products. We think that kind of focus will make for a better user experience.

An unpleasant reminder of just how dependent I've grown on Google's free services: Gmail, Blogger, Calendar, Contacts . . . I was deeply saddened when they gutted  G Reader in 2011, but at least it was still a feed, and I remained aloyal user.  I literally use Google Reader more than any other service on the web, except possibly GMail.

LifeHacker has a roundup of alternative readers that the Google Reader diaspora may scatter to . . . as well as instructiuons for importing your G-Reader settings.

Woman Killed By Tractor Trailer In Red Hook, No Criminality Suspected: Gothamist

Jesus, another person killed, right at the border of Carroll Gardens and Red Hook. That stretch of Hamilton is terrifying.

A 60-year-old woman was struck and killed by a tractor trailer in Red
Hook this morning. Police say the victim was crossing Court Street at
Hamilton Avenue around 6:40 a.m. when she was hit by a truck driver
traveling west on Hamilton Avenue. The woman was pronounced dead at
the scene. An NYPD spokesperson said that no criminality is suspected,
and the investigation is ongoing.

The proposed pedestrian and bus improvements (WARNING - PDF) to tie Red Hook better
into the community can't happen soon enough.

Run For Your Lives!

Revenge sought for the Gowanus incident? Is it irresponsible to
speculate? It is irresponsible not to.
Items both from my Google Reader feed just now.

Inside The Fulton Street Transit Center: Gothamist

Inside the Dey Street passageway, signs wait to be pressed into service.

I am so looking forward to the completion of the Fulton Street Transit Center next year.  Last week I had an opportunity to go behind the scenes (a dream come true for any transit geek) with a group of transit professionals to see how progress is going at the site.   Been dying to post some photos but now the MTA has posted a set of their own. Via Gothamist:

Today the MTA dropped a sweet gallery of photosupdating New Yorkers on the project, specifically focusing on the gorgeous detail work that has gone into restoring the Corbin Building on the corner of John Street and Broadway. That skinny slip of a building hasn't looked this good in ages. Look at these restored details!

It's easy to get caught up in the delays and outrageous expense of the project - and the fact that the project does not add system capacity. But I never forget what a miserable, depressing warren, what a stale, urine-soaked dungeon this station used to be.

Aesthetics, accessibility and convenience are hugely important. When you spend a key part of every working day (or vacation, for our guests) passing through the subway system, the experience you have is going to impact your opinion of transit and your general outlook on life.  A miserable commuting experience endlessly repeated just grinds a person down.  By contrast, a bright, easy-to-navigate station with amenities can leave a person in a good mood for the business of life.

That's my experience anyway.  So despite the cost and the delays, I really can't wait for the rest of this station to open up and I'm glad the resources were applied here.  It's an amazing improvement over what was there, and it will have a tremendous quality of life impact for everyone that uses it.

I'll admit to initially being a Dey Street passageway skeptic - certainly there were other uses for the money. But particularly on cold or rainy days, I think it will actually see a lot of use.  Those teeming hordes the PATH train deposits at the WTC will have a host of new commuting options without setting foot above ground. 

And the Corbin Building - the care and restoration of which was forced on the MTA by LPC at significant cost - turned out to be a beautiful addition to the project.  The Corbin Building (8 floors) is available for lease as commercial space.

"You Cackling Buffoons"

In addition to making an excellent point about subway etiquette, this
made me laugh out loud. So true.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/03/metropolitan-diary-subway-seat-pregnant-woman-cane.html

Bob Woodward's Belushi Hit Piece

You might wonder why I'm so hard on reporters - it feels like half of what I write consists of complaints about journalists.  Mostly it's because of just how important the role they play in an open society is (and how important news is to me personally).  Great reporters delight me.  Decent and workmanlike reporters nourish my thoughts.  Lazy and incompetent reporters disappoint or annoy me. But dishonest reporters just make my blood boil. And once I've made the realization that a reporter is a dishonest or disingenuous hack … well, visceral contempt is probably a good description of the feeling.  And Bob Woodward is a dishonest, disingenuous hack. 

Wired is an infuriating piece of work. There's a reason Woodward's critics consistently come off as hysterical ninnies: He doesn't make Jonah Lehrer–level mistakes. There's never a smoking gun like an outright falsehood or a brazen ethical breach. And yet, in the final product, a lot of what Woodward writes comes off as being not quite right—some of it to the point where it can feel quite wrong. There's no question that he frequently ferrets out information that other reporters don't. But getting the scoop is only part of the equation. Once you have the facts, you have to present those facts in context and in proportion to other facts in order to accurately reflect reality. It's here that Woodward fails.

Over and over during the course of my reporting I'd hear a story that conflicted with Woodward's account in Wired. I'd say, "Aha! I've got him!" I'd run back to Woodward's index, look up the offending passage, and realize that, well, no, he'd put down the mechanics of the story more or less as they'd happened. But he'd so mangled the meaning and the context that his version had nothing to do with what I concluded had actually transpired.

The worst part is, when I was a kid I thought Bob Woodward was a hero.