Rage Against The Eminent Domain Machine

Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me. And now you do what they told ya:

For the past six years, Daniel Goldstein has been at the center of just about every rally, house party, concert and lawsuit opposed to the $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards project near Downtown Brooklyn.

He wielded a bullhorn and had a lightning-fast e-mail response to every incursion by the developer Bruce C. Ratner on the 22-acre project site at Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues. As the project advanced, and every one his neighbors abandoned his building on Pacific Street, Mr. Goldstein remained with his wife and child, vowing never to be dislodged from their seventh-floor condominium.

But on Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Goldstein, the last residential holdout in Mr. Ratner’s way, agreed to walk away from his apartment by May 7 for $3 million. Mr. Goldstein, 40, also agreed to step down as spokesman for Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, the main group opposing Atlantic Yards. And he said he would withdraw from any litigation and not “actively oppose the project,” although he said he held on to his First Amendment rights.

Here’s Goldstein’s statement: “My home was seized by the government to give to a private developer.”

Location Scout: Atlantic Yards.

Listen For My Store On Wheels Dingaling At G8

Mr. Softee’s plan to control the world:

But more recently, Mr. Softee has pointed its cone-headed logo in a different direction, far from the brownstones of Brooklyn or the flats of London.

. . .

Now this staple of New York City life is being served 7,000 miles away, on the streets of Suzhou, an ancient city of more than six million people about 50 miles west of Shanghai. Mr. Softee or Mr. Soft Heart, the English translation of “ruan xin xian sheng” — there is no Mandarin word for Softee — has been a hit, with sales doubling every year since the first truck started rolling three years ago.

See also: Mr. Softee.

Bloomberg Discovers New Meaning For “Limited Partnership”

Tom Robbins notes the irony of Bloomberg being showy offering $120,000 to encourage minorities and women to get involved in New York’s film industry while at the same time doing little to encourage an open call for higher-paid managers for his troubled NYC Media division:

The Bloomy Law & Order event also conveniently came a couple weeks after the Voice reported that the mayor handed the son of a close friend a $114,000 a year job at what’s now called NYC Media. The mayor’s managers never even bothered to interview anyone else for the post, or comply with the city’s own equal opportunity rules.

The mayor’s Law & Order minority hiring plan is also a step or two divorced from everyday reality. Since Wierson, Scotland and a few other miscreants were booted last spring, Bloomberg’s managers have filled at least four top jobs at the city station, all of which have gone to whites who either worked at Bloomberg’s own private TV outfit, or who are friends of station executives. Not a single minority has been hired.

Is Bette Midler Getting Ripped Off?

City builders testify that the Parks Department’s tree pricing is arbitrary and possibly inflated:

Using one calculation method, the city Parks Department could estimate the price of an oak tree 24 inches in diameter at $15,600. Using another, they could charge an unfathomable $123,500.

Often, the bill falls somewhere in between — and always without explanation.

The City Council plans to vote legislation today that’s meant to clear things up.

. . .

Giving builders the option of planting trees would be a particular boost for the Island, Altman added, because it could help move development more quickly and potentially lower costs. The Parks Department charges $1,900 to plant one 8-inch sapling, and usually takes months to do so; builders who testified before the Council said they pay anywhere between $300 and $500 to purchase the same tree.

Trees: The Gift Down Below

Not only do trees kill but they slowly wreak havoc on our infrastructure as well:

The devastation tree roots can have on sewer pipes is another problem.

“The older sewer connections were put together with cement, and the tree roots penetrate the connections. It happens frequently,” said John Figliolia, president of the New York Association of Water and Sewer Excavators. “You’re talking thousands and thousands of dollars.”

“No way would I want a tree planted in front of my property,” said Steven Kogel of Harris Watermain and Sewer Contractors in East New York, Brooklyn. “As a master plumber, I know what a tree can do to the sewer and the sidewalk. It’s a mess.”

And when there’s a tree in front of a house and the sewer pipes have to be changed, the contractor must take out a Parks Department permit and hire an arborist who will oversee the excavation and installation of the sewer, said Kogel. “The job, which would take two days, takes twice as long.”

The city is responsible for any trip-and-fall cases involving tree roots in front of a three-family home or smaller. The city Law Department said it had to pay out $39 million in judgments and settlements last year for cases involving sidewalk defects.