SENATOR HIP-HOP
We’re pretty sure when Jay-Z drops his next single, he won’t have State Sen. Daniel Squadron rapping with him, but we have to think Mr. Beyonce appreciated the senator’s homage to him this week as Squadron argued against a bill that they both oppose.
The bill allows ticket re-sellers like StubHub to continue to rake in profits from charitable concerts without any of the money going to charities like 9/11 families, which Jay-Z supported.
Squadron on the floor of the Senate Tuesday rapped somewhat to the rhythm of Jay-Z’s “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)”: “Thanks for comin’ out this afternoon/ You coulda been anywhere in the world, but you decided to come to session…H to the izz-O, T to the icket/ On charity shows/ Sizellers say stick it/ Of ticket scalping, you wouldn’t believe/ How many charities have been cheated, funds diverted like thieves…Now’s the time, Mr. President, I vote N to the izz-O.”
Squadron also recited “We shouldn’t scalp the tickets” to Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” but we think his heart is really with Hip-Hop. His fans — Squadron’s that is, not Joel’s — may recall his extended 2011 prose tribute, on the Senate floor to MCA, who at the time was recently deceased and was a.k.a. Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys.
Think we’re kidding? Check the videos:
SQUADRON “COVERING” JAY-Z & BILLY JOEL
SQUADRON ON the BEASTIE BOYS’ ADAM YAUCH
WHIM or a PRAYER?
It remains a mystery how the Battery Park City Authority decides permits for the ballfields in the neighborhood. We tried asking Robin Forst, vice president for external relations, repeatedly and in many different ways what guidelines the authority uses for the process. That got us nowhere — we were told there were no published or written guidelines.
Apparently the decision could be made on a whim or a prayer for all anyone knows.
We filed a Freedom of Information request for any written communications about the ballfield permits or any indication of how the decisions are made — since the B.P.C.A. decided to change the process by opening up the coveted fields to the whole city. It took 12 days not the required five, for them to even acknowledge our request.
Then they sent us an application to apply. No thanks, we don’t want to compete with the Downtown Little League for field space.
Committee member Jeffrey Mihok asked Forst Tuesday night at Community Board 1’s Battery Park City Committee meeting if the B.P.C.A. had reconsidered the opening up of the permit process — a huge concern for the community that fought to build and then Astroturf the ballfields for year-long use. Forst responded that they had met with the Downtown Soccer League and “We hear you” — but that question, like the permit process itself, remained unanswered.
HIGH LIFE
When Russian B-baller Andrei Kirilenko played for the Brooklyn Nets, he and his family lived Downtown at New York by Gehry at 8 Spruce St. — not coincidentally, we think, since developer Bruce Ratner owns the Nets and the building. But now that Kirilenko is playing back in Russia, his old 5-bedroom penthouse with spectacular views is back on the rental market, at a mere $45,000 a month.
The apartment, which has only had Kirilenko as a tenant, includes a guest suite for a nanny or visitors.
These may not be drawing cards for the next renter, but in case it’s only slightly out of your price range consider: an excellent public K-8, Spruce Street School, is on the ground floor; and the building is about to begin its own CitiBike-like bike share program with we suspect higher-quality bicycles.
