NYU
'Times' editor Jill Abramson opens up about layoffs, the time she almost quit, and loneliness at the top
They're great people, they're incredibly talented, they're Times people to the core, they do have amazing institutional memory, but in some ways, they were editors of editors. We just had a lot of layers. The newsroom now, you need to have direct reports of all kinds, and that's just an extra layer that we can't afford, and I questioned whether we still needed some of those jobs. It's painful, it's horrible. More
(2)'Rats with wings': The uneasy deal between New Yorkers and our pigeons
Despite their bad reputation, though, Jerolmack noted that our urban encounters with pigeons "are profoundly social." "The impulse to feed pigeons is not so different from wanting to chat with strangers," Jerolmack said, speaking about one of the subjects for his book, Anna, the elderly pigeon lady who regularly feeds the birds at Father Demo Square, the tiny enclave in the West Village where Jerolmack's research began. More
(2)Zadie Smith on 'little sparks of something like actual life' and her latest, 'NW'
What then ultimately brought her back to fiction, she was asked. “There are little sparks of something like actual life,” she said after a deliberative pause, “and I don’t think an essay could ever create that friction, that feeling of being alive. And when you’re a kid, that’s why you read, and some people forget that, but for me that feeling of the fake-real, the almost-real, I get pleasure from thinking I could do that.” More
'Times' will end partnerships with N.Y.U., CUNY on hyperlocal blogs
The Times has decided to terminate its collaborations with the journalism schools of New York University and the City University of New York on two websites covering the East Village and Lower East Side, and the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill. More
(3)2013 candidates differ on what kind of bad grade Bloomberg gets for business-diversity efforts
The 2013 mayoral contenders agree on one thing: the Bloomberg administration's efforts to hire minority- and women-run businesses have proven inadequate. More
(1)Biden lists Romney's foreign-policy flaws, in an N.Y.U. speech overtaken by a 'big stick'
It didn't take anything at all to warm up the crowd for Vice President Joe Biden's big foreign policy speech at New York University this morning.
At exactly 10:30, the scheduled start time, the buoyant Motown music stopped and a hush fell over the crowd of college Democrats and other assorted supporters who had packed into the small Vanderbilt Hall.
And then the music came back on, and everyone laughed. More
Bloomberg announces a science campus for N.Y.U. in Brooklyn
There was lots of backslapping this afternoon as Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined elected officials and academic leaders at N.Y.U.'s Polytechnic Institute in downtown Brooklyn to announce a a long-sought agreement paving the way for applied-sciences campus at an underutilized M.T.A.-occupied building nearby. More
Shrum and Schmidt agree: Romney's appearance with Trump was an incredibly bad idea
Steve Schmidt, a political strategist for Bush and Cheney and campaign adviser to John McCain, agrees with the pro-Obama Democrats who say there's no real comparison between the Democratic primary of 2008 and the Republican primary of 2012. More
Gillibrand pushes stimulus and super PAC constraints without unilateral disarmament
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand spoke to a breakfast gathering of the Association for a Better New York this morning, for the first time since an appearance shortly after her surprise appointment to the Senate in January of 2009.
"In the three short years since I stood with you, I'm sorry to say that Washington has actually become more dysfunctional," Gillibrand said. "Just look at how Congress ended the last session, another deadline, another manufactured crisis by the leadership of the House of Representatives, who are either unwilling or unable to govern." More
'The Muppets Take Manhattan': An anthem for the struggling young New Yorker, still
It’s easy to understand why the Landmark Sunshine Cinema regularly screens The Muppets Take Manhattan as part of their midnight-movie initiative.
As an instructional guide, the movie is probably of limited use to actual human beings. But it's a fantasy you can easily relate to if you are, say, a struggling young would-be artist enrolled at New York University’s Tisch School for Performing Arts. More
A plan to spare the village from N.Y.U.'s next monster-dorm
Seven people testified at the City Planning Commission’s public hearing on a proposed rezoning of an area being called the “Third Avenue Corridor,” and not one of them was against it. All but one were representing someone else, which may have been because this particular issue was taken up two-and-a-half hours into the session, after an incredibly passionate debate about a proposed halfway house somewhere in Brooklyn, or because some of the bosses felt the issue was not controversial enough to require them to make an appearance. More
Greenwich Village preservationists soldier on after victory
"We fought the good fight as long as we could" Berman said, addressing the audience. Regarding the Landmark Preservation Committee, GVSHP's best friend and sworn enemy, Berman said he planned to "encourage them and acknowledge all the good work that they do, but really hold their feet to the fire." More
