Links to Sample Clips from Cody Lyon

The Drama Behind New York City’s Bike Share Delay (Gotham Gazette)

THE DRAMA BEHIND NEW YORK CITY’S BIKE SHARE

NEW YORK — The firm picked by the city to run what is meant to be the nation’s largest bicycle share program has been dogged by questions about how it got a contract to run a similar system in Chicago, while its partner is being sued by a key software developer.

City officials announced last week that the much-anticipated bike share program would be delayed from its expected roll-out this summer to March 2013. Mayor Michael Bloomberg blamed the system’s software. “The software doesn’t work. Duh,” Bloomberg said on his radio show. “We’re not going to put it out until it does work.”

There may be a good reason why the software doesn’t work: It’s unfinished. According to the city official in charge of the recently launched bike share program in Chattanooga, Tenn., which uses the same platform, the software is undergoing “ongoing development.”

“There’s still work to be done — features to be added — and that’s where we are at the current time,” said Philip Pugliese, of Bike Chattanooga.

Link to full story

New York City Explores Ferries as Transit (Gotham Gazette)

by Cody Lyon, Apr 15, 2013

---

NEW YORK — Nearly six months after Superstorm Sandy paralyzed subways and buses across the city, water transit advocates and politicians are saying it is time to expand ferry service into a robust, five-borough system that can operate in good times and after disasters.

They also see it as a means for providing affordable public transit to areas underserved by existing transit infrastructure — including, for example, the Rockaways, where the subway linking the peninsula was taken out of commission by the storm and a new ferry service was started up to connect the isolated community to Manhattan.

Yet, as policymakers look to expand ferry service, they are reminded of similar efforts over the past 20 years that have drowned in costs. Around 30 regional ferry services have come and gone, despite the investment of close to $700 million in capital investments.

Today’s ferry system is balkanized, with about half a dozen private operators carrying passengers across the Hudson and East rivers, as well as other parts of the metro area. The Staten Island Ferry, which accounts for the largest share of waterway ridership, is run by the Department of Transportation.

LINK  TO FULL STORY

UPSTART- (Business Journals)

What’s more American than coffee shops and ice cream? The freedom to have a ‘gay’ brand

Enlarge Image »Bryan Petroff (l) and Douglas Quint (r) sit outside the East Village location of their Big Gay Ice Cream shop. Donny Tsang

by Cody Lyon , Upstart Business Journal contributor March 22, 2013  |  4:41pm EDT

Stroll down East 7th Street in Manhattan’s East Village, go past St. Stanislaus Catholic church, just beyond the Butter Lane cupcake shop, you’ll find Big Gay Ice Cream. And the tiny shop is often packed.Customers squeeze in against unicorn-covered walls, or wait patiently in line outside. They’re all waiting for funky frozen treats like a Bea Arthur, Salty Pimp or a Mexican Affo’gay’to. Some pose for pictures in front of the storefront window featuring a rainbow-swirly ice cream cone.The novel-yet-wildly successful ice cream venture has gotten tons of press from publications as diverse as Men’s Healthmagazine and the Huffington Post, the Food Network and The Rachel Ray Show. Big Gay Ice Cream was the brainchild of co-foundersDouglas Quint and Bryan Petroff who began it as a seasonal food truck in 2009. They opened their first brick-and-mortar location in 2011 and followed it up last year with a second storefront location in the West Village. Today, they’re introducing a soft-serve variety to their ice cream repertoire.

SEE FULL STORY AT UPSTART*

 

 

 

 

Bloomberg Plans to Mandate Green Retrofits (GlobeSt.com)

Last updated: April 23, 2009  11:32am By Cody Lyon NEW YORK CITY-As showcased at SL Green Realty Corp.’s Earth Day celebration Wednesday, the inset of a 17th floor roof at the REIT’s 100 Park Ave. is covered with green vegetation that looks out of place among Midtown skyscraper peaks. The “green roof” installation, one of 14 at the newly retrofitted property, catches rain water, eliminating runoff and–unlike its heat radiating concrete neighbor roofs–naturally absorbs rays from the sun, helping cool the building’s interior. Retrofits like these may become a requirement citywide if the Bloomberg administration has its way. Contained in the proposals announced by Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Wednesday are mandates that require older buildings to invest in necessary technology and infrastructure that would increase energy efficiency and reduce the city’s carbon footprint. New York City’s buildings are responsible for 80% of its carbon emissions. The investments could prove costly, but promise tremendous savings in power bills for thousands of properties. LINK TO FULL STORY Who is Ground Zero’s Ombudsman? : Years behind deadlines, Billions over budget,calls for oversight at WTC rebuild (GlobeSt.Com) By Cody Lyon, on August 9th, 2009 Excerpt from globeSt.com article… NEW YORK CITY-The sidewalks surrounding the 16 acres in Downtown Manhattan known as Ground Zero are still covered by tourists, who are forced to hold cameras high above their heads in an attempt to peek over the blue-shrouded fence guarding the construction site. Eight years after the event that drew those tourists there in the first place, construction at the site has been slow to come, marred by inefficiency and public frustration, and for the last year or so, a very public dispute between politicians, a massive public agency and commercial real estate interests. “If you get anyone involved who is part of the political process, or the construction process, you’ll get the same old tired answers,” says construction attorney Barry LePatner, author of Broken Buildings, Busted Budgets: How to Fix America’s Trillion Dollar Construction Industry. “There should be huge outrage over this, but we’re in the middle of recession which draws our attention to a zillion other problems.” Others agree that that the volleying between the involved parties has grown confusing. “The political ping-pong game is very disconcerting to tenants and the brokerage community at large, because people are seeking clarity and specific direction in this marketplace,” says Robert D. Goodman, senior managing director at FirstService Williams. Goodman, who worked at the World Trade Center, says he’d just left his office one minute before the events of 9/11 unfolded. He says that personal history, plus a career centering on the Downtown market, has contributed to his keen interest in what happens at the site. LINK TO FULL STORY   Despite MTA Nod, Atlantic Yards Saga Still Unfolds By Cody Lyon | New York “delays due to litigation and a difficult economic environment required the approved changes.” The statement adds “we have worked very hard, however, as have our colleagues in government, to ensure that these changes would in no way impact the overall benefits of the project.” The project, steeped in years of controversy, litigation and now a dried-up credit market, has evolved into a scaled-down version of what was originally sold to public officials and city residents. More evidence of a project facing challenges arrived on June 5, when despite being the recipient of millions of city and state taxpayer-dollar subsidies, Forest City Ratner admitted the shedding of star architect Frank Gehry. Soon after, renderings surfaced that showed less than dynamic designs for the centerpiece arena portion of the project. On June 8, New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ourousoff referred to the project renderings as a “monstrosity.” When asked about the scathing Times critique that lambasted what it called more than a “betrayal of a particular community,” an ESDC spokesman tells GlobeSt.com that a final design and rendering of the project has not been released. The spokesman said. LINK TO FULL STORY   LINK TO ALL GLOBE-STREET.COM Stories