Capital New York

The New Orleans newspaper 'mud hole,' viewed in a baseball metaphor

The Lineup collects the media stories, big and small, that are on our radar each day. More

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By Tom McGeveran and Joe Pompeo

on May 13th, 2013 4:15pm

Albany reporters protest being blocked from a Republican hearing

Yesterday, State Senate Republicans held a hearing to consider testimony about the possibility of adopting New York City-style campaign-finance laws for state legislative elections. More

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By Tom McGeveran

on May 8th, 2013 1:27pm

Tom McGeveran commented on This was Williamsburg

Ha it was, and still is in places! And Jersey City, and Red Hook, and I suspect lots of parts of lots of cities I don't know. Wicker Park at one point in Chicago or Northeast at one point in Minneapolis?

Posted on May 7th, 2013 11:19pm

Tom McGeveran commented on This was Williamsburg

Well, I think you're being a little harsh. I mean there was nothing that most people would live around, and I think that's just true. Nobody else did! As for Bushwick, a few blocks away, that's precisely what I meant to describe as civilization, indifferent to my arrival, as they should certainly have been! An anecdote that I didn't include here: There was so little actual occupied space (whether residential or otherwise) near our apartment that I wrote a post to a Bushwick listserv to ask if anyone else lived in the factories of the East Williamsburg Industrial Park, and the moderator removed it with a note to me: That is not Bushwick! We really were, right then, between places, I think. I'm sorry you didn't like reading the article but, with respect, I don't accept your criticism that I don't understand that neighborhoods can exist without me. It's the fact that the neighborhood existed, but I didn't, that drove me out!

Posted on May 7th, 2013 11:14pm

Tom McGeveran commented on This was Williamsburg

Ha, I totally appreciate your sentiment here! I think learning nobody's necessarily watching was the revelation I needed, and finally the reason I left. I didn't mean that I thought Manhattan didn't know about Williamsburg--as early as the very early 90s I was visiting friends in Williamsburg, mostly down around Broadway near the waterfront or along Bedford. That was all well known and clearly the new art neighborhood. After all there were galleries that opened, operated for years and closed before I ever arrived. I meant, as poorly as I put it, my weird segment of it in that factory area you didn't like to go to until 2002. None of the street names were known, it was on no familiar grid, was not near a subway anyone had heard of. That's what I mean to write!

Posted on May 7th, 2013 11:10pm

Tom McGeveran commented on This was Williamsburg

I don't know! I assume that only the people who want to read it want to read it.

Posted on May 7th, 2013 11:06pm

This was Williamsburg

There was nothing around there back then. I mean really, nothing but working factories, mostly textile mills with giant mechanized looms churning out cheap sweaters, amazing late-industrial objects to watch, the noises of which became familiar to us quickly as one was still operating on the other end of our floor. More

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By Tom McGeveran

on May 3rd, 2013 2:27pm

'New York Times' gets a new politics editor: Carolyn Ryan

 

Ryan's big claim to fame is the Times' blockbuster revelation that Eliot Spitzer was involved in an F.B.I. investigation into a prostitution ring, a report that ended Spitzer's career as Governor of New York. Back then, in 2008, she was the metro political editor.

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By Tom McGeveran

on May 1st, 2013 5:15pm

Times Co.'s Mark Thompson unveils new strategic plan amid declining income

 

Once upon a time these large strategic initiatives would hint at campaigns for acquiring name-brand companies and technologies to broaden the business; but in the 2013 media environment, the Times is sticking to its knitting.

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By Tom McGeveran

on April 25th, 2013 5:08am