The New York Observer

ALBANY—David Paterson arrived late for his big speech, and before an Assembly chamber that featured over a dozen empty chairs, delivered a blunt message: "Frankly, we are running out of money." "At this moment, all of us assembled in this chamber stand as the last defense between our state gong into a downward economic spiral that threatens to engulf generations of future new Yorkers," Paterson ... Full Story »

A few weeks ago, Hearst Corp's Esquire announced that they'd debut a snazzy new "augmented reality" issue and be the first publication to take the relatively new technology into its pages. AR, the hot new trend in iPhone apps, layers data, images and video that users can interact with in real-time. The issue is now on stands and after users download some software (and, oh, P.S., buy a Web cam ... Full Story »

Extell Development's skyscraper planned for 57th Street and Broadway will face a big test Tuesday, as the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission is set to decide the fate of two connected buildings built by the B.F. Goodrich Company in 1909. Just what that fate will be is  unclear to many involved, a rare twist with a commission where decisions almost always seem predetermined. Tuesday morning ... Full Story »

Pushing a health care reform bill through the House on Saturday night was a trickier task than Democrats anticipated. But it still wasn't that suspenseful: Somehow you knew that party leaders - and the White House - would manage to squeeze out the necessary 218 votes, something they ended up accomplishing by killing a plan to peg reimbursement rates for a government-run insurance program to ... Full Story »

SoHo Properties has invested in Chelsea. Sharif El-Gamal , chairman and CEO of the real estate investment group, has dropped $45.7 million on the property at 31 West 27th Street , which PropertyShark describes as a 12-story, 108,594-square-foot office building. "We just bought it for the income," Mr. El-Gamal told The Observer . "It's got great long-term leases, and the financing was really ... Full Story »

Christmas came early at the box office this weekend as A Christmas Carol bah humbugged its way to $31 million in ticket sales and a first place finish, ahead of newcomers The Men Who Stare at Goats ($13.3 million in second) and The Fourth Kind ($12.5 million in fourth). The big story, though, was the limited release debut of Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire . The much-discussed ... Full Story »

Monday: Gossip Girl There is some wear on these treads—specifically with regards to Blair, who has been spinning her wheels in a swampy mess of weekly plotting and scheming for no real reason other than the script telling her to do so—but those breathlessly wailing about the demise of Gossip Girl couldn't have it more wrong. This is a teen show that sidestepped the pitfalls of sending its teens ... Full Story »

Joe Halderman, the CBS News producer accused of attempting to extort $2 million from CBS Late Show star David Letterman, will be headed to a Manhattan court on Tuesday morning for the first hearing in the criminal case against him. Will Mr. Halderman, as it is widely assumed, try and reach a hasty plea agreement with prosecutors, beginning with Tuesday's motions hearing? That's unlikely ... Full Story »

The main $3 billion mortgage for Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village has been transferred to a "special servicer," according to the rating agency Fitch, a significant step taken when loans are in default or on the verge of default. The owners of the giant 11,200-unit Manhattan apartment complex, a partnership led by Tishman Speyer and BlackRock, had just $24 million left last month in a ... Full Story »

Paris Review editor Philip Gourevitch told his staff this afternoon that he will be stepping down in April after five years on the job. Mr. Gourevitch, who is also a New Yorker staff writer, said in an interview that his decision to resign was motivated by a desire to focus his energies on his writing, and that his current book project, which is about Rwanda, is proving too time-consuming to ... Full Story »

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Google Books has just launched a digitized magazine stand. In their never-ending quest to archive all media, from Web sites to books, Google is taking on the publishing world and scanning entire issues of magazines, ads and all. Most issues are usually two or three years old--or even a few decades old. It's kind of like heading into your parents' attic and checking out all the yellowing LIFE ... Full Story »

Opening night at New York City Opera felt like New York City Opera can sometimes feel: like the Metropolitan Opera, but scrunched up. Rather than unfolding majestically along Lincoln Center like the Met's, City Opera’s red carpet was crammed into the lobby. Then, when the gala ended, those who hadn’t been invited to the post-concert dinner had to squeeze past tables crammed with flowers, candles ... Full Story »

Back in April 2008, Abigail Disney , the mogul's grandniece, put her two 300 West End Avenue apartments on the market for a combined $13,445,000. It was an ambitious thing to do, considering that a year and a half earlier she'd paid the singer Harry Belafonte just $10.75 million for them. The pair of nine-room co-ops, listed with mega-agent Dolly Lenz, got less pricey as the economy drooped ... Full Story »

It looks like all it took for some movies that you actually might consider seeing to get released into theaters was a flip of the calendar. The first full weekend of November arrives with no less than five new films, and, as usual, there is something for everyone. As we do every Friday, here's a handy guide to the new releases. A Christmas Carol What's the story: Are you ready for Christmas ... Full Story »

New York University is in the process of resolving a landmarks violation, issued after the school placed new signs on the landmarked Silver Towers, just south of Washington Square Park. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation first complained to the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission in June, after the school installed new signs in the spring, which tell visitors to curb ... Full Story »

If one Googles the term "Soviet Style bureaucracies," Assemblyman Richard Brodsky owns the top four results, each with quotes of his that refer to New York's public authorities--his favorite term on the topic. The Westchester Democrat has long been pushing a bill to reform such public quasi-agencies--including the M.T.A., the Empire State Development Corporation and the New York Power Authority ... Full Story »

Bill Rudin , the civic-minded real estate billionaire, admired in New York for his family’s remarkable success, apparent functionality, and steadfast devotion to New York civic life, made a startling declaration on Wednesday morning at the Harvard Club. “I got a call the other day from an Albany politician,” said Mr. Rudin, the chairman of the Association for a Better New York, speaking in his ... Full Story »

Kyle Pope, formerly the number two editor at Conde Nast Portfolio , has been announced as the next editor of The New York Observer . Observer publisher Jared Kushner announced the appointment today. Editor Tom McGeveran, who announced last week that he will be leaving the paper at the end of the year, introduced Mr. Pope to the editorial staff at a meeting this afternoon. Mr. Pope started his ... Full Story »

The New York State Senate's chief information officer team just launched an early version of their Open Legislation Portal today. The site allows users to search for bills by sponsor, committee, recent actions, and recent votes. You can also search by keyword, like, say, "bicycle" and find relevant bills and data available in four different formats. Most of this information was already available ... Full Story »

Tired of clicking around YouTube and iTunes for online videos of substance? Search no more! The Observer has your weekly handy guide to what's worth watching on the Web. The New York City Marathon in video form - Brooklyn photographer Mehmet Dokumcu created this beautiful time lapse video, capturing all those crazy marathoners who pounded the pavement last Sunday. He set up his camera on 4th ... Full Story »

Mayor Michael Bloomberg now has the time and the mandate to create a legacy of LaGuardia-like proportions. His reelection after a catastrophic economic collapse on Wall Street, leading to the loss of tens of thousands of jobs, is a tribute to the high regard New Yorkers have for his managerial skills, economic vision and common sense. Voters clearly understand that as bad as things are in some ... Full Story »

Condé Nast announced today that it has poached Susan Plagemann from Hearst and has made her the new publisher of Vogue . Ms. Plagemann has spent the better part of her career at Hearst. She's been the publisher of Marie Clare since 2004, she was the publisher of C osmopolitan before that and worked as an advertising manager at Esquire even before that. She began her career at Condé Nast in ... Full Story »

After the sleepy Modern and Impressionist Art Sale last night at Christie's, the gallerist Tony Shafrazi and John Herring stood outside and beamed at each other. "Is this guy a living legend or not?" Mr. Herring said, pointing to his friend. "It's not a question. That's academic." Mr. Herring and his twin brother, Paul, work together as high-end art dealers, and are known for their discretion ... Full Story »

So there we were somewhere around 10 o'clock on Election Night, watching as county after county reported devastating news for Jon Corzine. New Jersey's governor—for whom Barack Obama made two splashy campaign appearances in the home stretch—was going down, the first Democrat to lose a statewide race there in 12 years, and only the second in 37 years to lose one by more than a point. And the ... Full Story »