The other night we were hanging out at Brooklyn Water Park, which is basically underneath the Manhattan Bridge. The view on the surroundings is pretty good, and popular. I snapped this shot of one of the infamous NYC waterfalls. They are pretty hideous, no? :)

Local filmmakers Nancy Gerstman and Emily Russo of Zeitgeist Films sat down with Premiere Senior Editor and NYC Metblogs pal Jenni Miller to talk about their experiences in the film industry and the 20th anniversary of their company. I tagged along to photograph the two for the article and was interested to hear what they had to say about women in the film business and bringing great films that mix the political with the artistic to the public. From the article:

Zeitgeist Films, an independent film company known for delivering intelligent arthouse cinema to US audiences, is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a retrospective of its award-winning films at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The company’s co-Presidents, Nancy Gerstman and Emily Russo, sat down with Premiere in their Soho office to discuss entrepreneurship, creating a girl’s club within a male-dominated industry, and acquiring the documentary, Trouble the Water.

It’s an interesting article and outlook from two women who followed their passion for making great films (and kept the company local - their offices are in SoHo). You can also see the retrospective Zeitgeist: The Films of Our Time at the Museum of Modern Art, but hurry - the retrospective ends next Wednesday, July 23.

Not since Christo’s “Central Park Gates” have we had an installation so impressive. Olafur Eliasson’s four “NYC Waterfalls” have come to NY Harbor. There are bike tours, boat trips, and water taxi runs, to go up close to see the falls [think Niagara Falls "Maid of the Mist"], but if you prefer to stay dry, you can view them from spots in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Staten Island as well.

Check out the official websites for locations, times, pictures, and other details.

I come from a long line [well, two generations long] of Mets fans. And it isn’t because I live in Queens either. I was raised in Brooklyn, and then Long Island. My dad was born in Brooklyn. Even his dad was born in Brooklyn. My dad is still sitting shiva for the Dodgers moving to LA! Therefore, in my family, you wouldn’t be caught dead rooting for the Yankees!

But yesterday, I was ready to burn my orange and blue and wear pinstripes. Okay, I’m not running a benefit for Willie Randolph! You can’t even equate his firing to layoffs at United or Starbuck’s or even Bear Stearns. Besides Willie’s money, I’m sure he’ll get snatched up as fast as the Dodgers nabbed Joe Torre.

And I’m not questioning whether he needed to go. Maybe Willie’s time was up. But do you have to fly the guy to California, let him qvell over his winning team, and then fire him at midnight after he reaches his hotel room? Beyond tacky. I never thought anyone could make the Steinbrenners look like nice guys, but this did just that!

Shame on you, Mets Management!! photo credit:Kjetil Ree/Wikimedia Commons

There has been more than one unprecedented move by the Holy Father during his visit to the US. As I write this, the Pontiff is on is way to the United Nations to speak, after landing at JFK. His acknowledgment of the sex scandal rocking the Catholic Church, and meeting with some victims, has been an earthshaking move, although demonstrators outside the UN are protesting that it wasn’t enough.

Later today, the Pope will visit Park East Synagogue. This will not be the first visit to a synagogue by a pontiff. This is the second time this pope has visited a house of Jewish worship, and the third visit overall [his predecessor was the first]. What is significant is that this is right before Passover when the pope will meet the Jewish leaders. And this German-born pontiff, who was a young man in the Nazi era, will come face-to-face with the Rabbi Arthur Schneier of Park East Synagogue, a survivor of the Holocaust.

And so I wish Pope Benedict XVI a Happy Passover!

Today marked a rather grim anniversary: 5 years of the Iraq war. I attended a candle-lit vigil hosted by MoveOn in Madison Square Park. At first, only a humble number gathered to show their support for the anti-war cause. But then the group grew to a sizeable crowd, despite the stormy weather.

I spoke to one representative from MoveOn, who passionately told me her reasons for being against the war. She pointed out that America had now been engaged in the Iraq war for longer than World War II, certainly a disturbing thought. Another MoveOn representative carried a rather emotional sign, stating “I want my brother out of Iraq.” She gave a heartfelt speech which described the horrific conditions that soldiers are forced to endure in Iraq, including inadequate equipment, poor medical supplies, and low quality food and water. She said that she’d even had to buy her brother a gas mask. She called out to the crowd that if you support our troops, you are against the war - a statement met with cheers and applause.

The protest continued with volunteers from the crowd reading stories submitted to MoveOn about personal experiences with the Iraq war from soldiers and their loved ones. The message through these tales was clear - bring troops home to their loved ones and give them the care that they need. Many of these emotional excerpts stressed how money spent on the Iraq war should be spent on domestic education, health care, and care for veterans. The protest ended with people singing “Stop the war” to the tune of Taps.

Photo from imp-ep.three-half.com

A college friend of my fiance’s has begun holding mini reunions the third Thursday of every month. Yesterday was the first we attended, hosted at Luzzo’s. The invitation had confused me, miscalling the place Puzzo’s - which does not exist on the internet, but is a fairly amusing name.

The restaurant location is inconvenient from all subway lines but the L. After a cold walk over, we arrived to find the group seated at a table all the way in the back, right next to the kitchen. I ended up in the unfortunate seat closest to the kitchen entrance, and throughout the night got jarred by inconsiderate servers rushing past. This and the fact that we had to practically beg for water refills throughout the meal left me with a bad impression of Luzzo’s service. We split several large pizzas, including the bufalo and mushroom. Everything tasted delicious. We also split a few bottles of red wine, all relatively inexpensive.

This establishment definitely serves a tasty, authentic Italian pizza for a reasonable price. But everything else about the place just left me unimpressed.

A few of the major advocates of congestion pricing have authored a little report with suggestions on how to make the concept more politically popular. Previously, road tolling and congestion pricing has been implemented in areas, like London, Singapore and Stockholm, in which drivers are a minority or on entirely new toll funded highways. Tolling existing “free” roads in the car dependent, United States is another story.

I liked the fact that they started things off with a quote from Niccolo Macciavelli which grasps the heart of the issue which is that any system, no matter how bad creates a constituency of people who have adapted to it and have learned to benefit from it while the proponent of change stands alone offering hypothetical benefits in an imagined future.. The authors advocate the idea of splitting any cash gained from congestion pricing and road tolling directly with the communities through which the roads go through to use as they please. These pots of money may well attract support. They also make a powerful social justice argument that the areas which bear the high negative social and health affects of major highways cutting through them should receive something back. They also point out the negative potential results of just plowing all the money from road tolling back into a “highway slush fund” which might very well result in the construction of even more roads in low density areas and compound the traffic/sprawl problem.

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old order of things, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new.

NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI
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I did two blog posts recently which talked about Hong Kongs transit system which profitably links transportation and land development.

Recently, the New York Water Taxi has had to cut a large number of it’s routes for lack of money. Isn’t there some way to link land development in the areas served by the water taxi to help fund it since the taxi adds tremendous value to these developments? This could be done in a number of ways, from granting the company some development rights, a cut of other developers profits or some kind of dedicated tax on land owners close to the areas served by the service.

After my last post, I googled around looking for more info on the history of the Hong Kong system and I didn’t find that much because things that work smoothly rarely get press. I did come across a very interesting group of people looking to make money in Chinese mass transit by acting as property developers. It’s pretty self evident that mass transit enables more intensive and profitable land uses near the lines.

“Katz and Lane, however, propose to make their project financially viable by acquiring and developing the real estate along the proposed transit lines. “An investment in rail enhances the value of real estate,” says Katz. “And yet in the United States, rail development has failed for political, economic or policy reasons to capture the benefit in real estate that rail created. Most systems don’t recover 50% of operating expenses.”

The idea of capturing increased land value to fund mass transit is not new. In Hong Kong, the MTR Corporation operates the railway and was given the rights to develop residential and commercial properties above the stations. According to Lai, who is also president of the International Chinese Transportation Professionals Association, the Hong Kong subway system is the only one in the world today that is making money.”