Bloomberg's Billionaire Boys Club Dominates NYC Construction

Lately I've noticed all the construction going on all over Manhattan Island. My gosh...you can't MISS it! EVERYwhere you look there are huge new condominiums and hotels and offices going up. Of course New York City has always been a "hub" of activity and skyscraper construction but they didn't build ALL the skyscrapers AT ONCE! It took 100 years to build NYC's definitive skyline, but lately it seems as if the powers that be are trying to build a whole new skyline THIS YEAR! There are more new buildings going up than ever. Today I was walking down 57th Street past another new Hilton Hotel going up next door to the Director's Guild of America. YET ANOTHER HILTON HOTEL! Manhattan has at least 4 (and probably more). Across the street are two more development sites that have been cleared and are preparing to build, giving yet more insanity to the already clogged cross-town artery 57th Street! The block my post office is on has been choked off for YEARS because of the non-stop construction of several new condo towers (mostly empty). Massive new towers are going up all over town including a new Trump Tower (in SoHo yet!) and so many more new buildings it's mind-boggling.

On 57th Street, on 42nd Street, on Broadway, on Fifth Avenue, Sixth Avenue, Seventh Avenue, Eighth Ave. (oh boy), Ninth Avenue, Tenth Avenue, Eleventh and Twelfth Avenue and every street in between...hotels, office buildings and my my my: condos GALORE! There must be 100 new skyscrapers (or more) going up now ALL AT ONCE! And I'm not exaggerating at all. In fact, I've probably UNDER-calculated.

Hey, I'm all for capitalism and making bushels of $$$....mazel tov! I think it's wonderful that Zeckenforf, Le Frak, Macklowe, Trump, Silverstein and all the other usual suspects (NYC developers) are making another few billion. But why are they all racing to build all of these new buildings all at once? And who are all of these rich people who are going to be moving in? But when 3 out of 4 streets I try to walk down are closed because of muddy, roped-off construction sites, gigantic booms swinging at all angles and arrogrant construction workers telling me to "move along" or blocking the streets so I can't use my regular tour routes, it's simply TOO MUCH.

I'm sure this is all because of Mayor Bloomberg, our billionaire mayor, the Democrat turned Republican turned Independent turncoat. I've met the Mayor and he's very cold and formal... Mayor Bloomberg has been a very good mayor and supposedly he's very honest. BUT birds of a feather flock together and that means fellow billionaires in the Billionaires Boys Club. Suddenly every construction project scheduled on the drawing board for the next 20 years has been green-lighted for NOW---for THIS YEAR or NEXT, because our business-friendly (read: development friendly) Mayor Bloomberg will be out by 2009. So his administration has OK'd anything and everything that his buddies want to put up. There are empty condos and empty offices all over town yet they keep building more because they, apparently, CAN. So much for a
"slumping" economy.

It's quite obvious what's happening...and there's nothing we can do about it except wait for it all to be over and for our billionaire Mayor to get OUT of City Hall and go back to the country club!

Had an audition for a new show for the History Channel called "Skywalkers"....my friend Mike called me and told me there was a posting on the internet for this show that just sounded like ME, so I looked up the posting, which had a woman's name: Emma, her email and her phone number attached. I contacted her and after attempting to meet for several days, it finally worked out.
Here's the description which I answered from the online posting:

An exciting new History show called, Skywalkers (WT) is looking for a host who has a passion and genuine interest in iconic buildings. The show will look at the science and engineering of iconic buildings. The host will take us to places that other programs wouldn’t go, i.e. scaling the side of a skyscraper in a window cleaning basket, inside elevator shafts, on the roof, in ventilation shafts etc, in order to get the viewer to really understand how the building was made. They will also look into what crucial technological advances were necessary at the time to enable to building to be made, e.g. development of a particularly strong type of steel, or glass, or a new approach to architecture. The host will have an enquiring mind, and ask the right questions to keep the viewer educated and interested. Here's the kind of person we are thinking of. We are looking for a guy in his 30s, poss 40s, who is either used to working at heights (construction worker, window washer, roof top landscape gardener, for example) or would be comfortable doing so. The idea being to have a host who's not necessarily an expert on the buildings but who has a genuine interest and asks the right questions so that the audience can learn at the same time as he does. So not just the way they look, but the science, engineering and technology that went into creating the structures. Someone who is down to earth, can laugh at himself, enthusiastic, and fearless. It's not necessary to have done TV work before although comfort with the camera obviously helps.
Location : New York; Contact Emma, etc.

Well, I thought I gave a fabulous audition...she wanted to be up high preferably so I took Emma and the camera up to the top of a building overlooking Rockefeller Center and she shot me with St. Patrick's Cathedral, Rock Center's Roof Gardens, etc. over my shoulder. I just burbled on for about 10 minutes yakking about St. Pat's, basic NYC history stuff, posed a couple of questions about Rock Center's construction, blah blah blah. Now it's in the hands of the Gods...we shall see if I'm what the history channel is looking for. Emma told me she's seen quite a few people and put them all on film...including a (retired) New York City firefighter who took her up to the roof of a building and talked about the construction, etc. She says they don't want "experts" ...they just want "real people" who have a little on-camera experience to explore, pose questions to experts and open and close the show, etc.
This is something I'd really, really like, so of course I won't get it! Always the way!

Million dollar Password with Regis Philbin

Story of the Week:
Well, they're bringing back my all-time favorite game show yet one more time...PASSWORD! This time it's being hosted by Regis Philbin, filmed in New York City (Queens) and called MILLION DOLLAR PASSWORD.
I heard about it and found the information to be a contestant on the CBS website and made an appointment to audition to be a contestant. The audition was held in a nondescript office off Fifth Ave. near 37th St. and is actually the offices for The People's Court TV show.
Now, let me preface this by saying I KNOW HOW TO PLAY PASSWORD. I'm a total word-game GEEK. I love crossword puzzles, Scrabble, and I've watched all the versions of Password since elementary school. Even now I record the old re-runs from the Game Show Network and watch them in the evenings. Hell, words are words. True, many of the celebrities are dead, infirm or just plain forgotten about, but what the hell....words are still WORDS, and I enjoy word games! So when we played the game, I did really, really well. They paired me up with a fluffy blond housewife from Florida who giggled a lot and was a mediocre player. But she told cute stories and THAT'S what they seemed interested in. It became very clear that they wanted contestants who not only displayed ENERGY (they kept reminding us to have ENERGY) but they wanted "reality show" type contestants. They kept asking me ON CAMERA...things like:
"Jim, tell us what's the most ridiculous thing you ever did in your life."
"Jim, what is the most embarrassing thing you've ever done."
"Jim, if we spoke to your friends, what would they tell us about you?"
"Jim, what's the one thing in your life you regret the most?"
"Jim, what would you do with the money, should you win the $1million?"
and on and on and on like this. Forget about the fact that I guessed ALL the passwords in one or two clues each.
Forget about the fact that when it was my turn to give the password clues to the Florida housewife, I gave her such excellent clues that she guessed every one...and we did it in 42 seconds! The guy giving us the test said it has NEVER been done that fast since they've been holding auditions!
But I couldn't come up with a stupid story to make them LIKE me while the camera was running. So, if anybody should EVER go out for Million Dollar Password (or any other game show)....remember: They don't care so much HOW you play the game...they just want you to have really stupid, moronic stories that will give Regis Philbin something to poke fun at when he introduces you as a contestant!!