TGI . . . F’ed

New leading economic indicator — burying bad news on a Friday:

City Councilman David Weprin, chairman of the Finance Committee, is standing by his cell phone, waiting for word on what’s in the mayor’s preliminary executive budget.

“It’s the first time I remember in my eight years here that the mayor is releasing his budget on a Friday,” Weprin said in a brief conversation.

What does that tell you?

“That it’s not going to be a good-news budget,” he said.

So Now Whenever We Switch From The R To The A Downtown We’ll Fondly Remember The $900 Billion Economic Stimulus Package Of 2009

For $500 million President Obama better get a nice looking plaque:

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority expects to spend $497 million in federal economic stimulus money to complete the stalled and over-budget Fulton Street Transit Center in Lower Manhattan, the agency’s executive director said on Thursday.

The money would bring the project’s cost to as much as $1.4 billion, nearly double what was estimated when it was conceived in the wake of the terror attack of Sept. 11, 2001.

The additional financing would allow the authority to move ahead with plans to erect an architecturally dramatic glass building atop the transit hub, said Elliot G. Sander, the authority’s executive director. However, it was not clear if the final design would include the project’s signature feature, a conelike skylight, known as an oculus, that would channel daylight into the lower areas of the station. Mr. Sander said the oculus could add about $40 million to the cost.

“The pavilion has to be many things to many people,” Mr. Sander said, referring to the glass structure. “It has to be a building of vibrant design with as much new retail activity as possible.” He called it “a highly visible portal to a modern transportation complex.”

Mr. Sander, who spoke at a State Assembly hearing in Lower Manhattan, said that he estimated the authority would receive $1.5 billion to $2 billion from the economic stimulus bill that is working its way through Congress. He said he planned to spend $497 million of that to complete the downtown transit hub. He did not say how the remainder would be spent.

The Fulton Street project, which is a block from the World Trade Center site, was originally financed by the federal government with $750 million that was earmarked for the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan. The project was meant to simplify a tangle of subway stations, topping them off with an eye-catching building that would rival the iconic structures planned for the rebuilt trade center.

But costs kept rising, and last January the authority said that while work would continue on the underground portions of the project, it could no longer afford to move ahead with the above-ground structure. The announcement was met with dismay downtown, where residents and businesses feared they would be stuck with an unsightly hole, a site where several buildings had been torn down to make way for the transit work.

Earlier: Yet Another Reason Not To Extend The 7 Train To A Convention Center That Doesn’t Even Need It . . ., Between Simpler Transfer Or Fancy Roof, I Want The Roof!

The Freedom Plinth

Because if we don’t build low-slung two-story retail at Ground Zero then the terrorists will have won:

The long-planned skyscrapers at Ground Zero will have to wait, but two low-slung buildings that could one day serve as their bases may go up soon, officials disclosed Thursday.

The buildings would face each other along Church St., rising two to six stories and serving as stand-ins until towers can be built.

They could even house world-class retail shops if recessionary ravages force new construction delays.

“The last thing the Port Authority will do is to leave holes and pits in the ground downtown,” said Port Authority Executive Director Chris Ward after a state Assembly hearing on the status of lower Manhattan redevelopment.

“To avoid that, we will either build pedestals, which will allow some form of retail options and permit long-term subsequent construction, or build to grade.”

Each would be engineered to support the immense towers that World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein intends to build on the 16-acre site.

They would be constructed later, when the real estate market recovers.

The pedestals would function as handsome, ultra-expensive stumps for the future buildings.

Masturbators Of The Universe

First the entire financial services industry collapses, then the skirt gets all uppity. These guys just can’t win:

They shared their sad stories the other night at an informal gathering of Dating a Banker Anonymous, a support group founded in November to help women cope with the inevitable relationship fallout from, say, the collapse of Lehman Brothers or the Dow’s shedding 777 points in a single day, as it did on Sept. 29.

In addition to meeting once or twice weekly for brunch or drinks at a bar or restaurant, the group has a blog, billed as “free from the scrutiny of feminists,” that invites women to join “if your monthly Bergdorf’s allowance has been halved and bottle service has all but disappeared from your life.”

. . .

Some women in the group said the men in their lives had gone from being aloof and unattainable to unattractively needy and clinging. Others complained of being ignored — one, who called herself A.P., wrote on the blog that three weeks had passed without her boyfriend “asking a single question” about her life. Another wrote, fearfully, that her beau had told her to make a list of their favorite New York restaurants before the bad market forced a move to the Midwest.

“Next time you are stressing over some finance guy, remember that he is just a math-club nerd,” one woman wrote after recounting a breakup. “This recession just bought everyone an extra two years of the single life.”

All You Need To Know

It’s simple:

With costs ballooning to replace two Bronx parks that were bulldozed for the new Yankee Stadium — the latest estimate is almost $195 million — the city’s Independent Budget Office said on Tuesday that more than $16 million of the higher expense “remains to be explained.”

The latest cost is almost $79 million over the 2005 estimate of $116 million, which itself was considerably more than the $96 million figure based on “conceptual designs” in an environmental impact statement using 2004 dollars.

The Yankees will be using their new $1.3 billion ballpark for opening day in April, but Little Leaguers, tennis players and picnickers are unlikely to have access to all eight replacement parks until the end of 2011, a year later than promised, the budget office said in a report.