A Twitter user called @NewYorkologist recently tweeted the image below. It's described as "Second Avenue Looking North From 42nd Street, 1861 - Egbert L. Viele (MCNY)."
For reference, from Google Streetview, here's what the same intersection looks like today:
(It's easy to imagine where the rocks went. But how about the hill? Is that it in the background?)
Microsoft is in talks to open up its first New York City retail location on Fifth Avenue, the Daily News reports. The company is negotiating for 677 Fifth Ave., which has been vacant since Fendi left the building last year.
A Google Maps search shows Apple's iconic Fifth Avenue location is just a 5-minute walk away from Microsoft's potential new spot. Besides following Apple in location, Microsoft is also likely to imitate its rival computer company in style. Its smaller retail locations echo Apple stores, from the sleek metal finish to the lanyards hanging from employees' necks.
Posting up in downtown Manhattan won't be cheap. Fifth Avenue stores sell for about $3,500 per square foot, the Daily News says. That means to lease the 8,700-square-foot space, Microsoft should pay a little more than $30 million.
SEE ALSO: For $400 Million, Microsoft's Surface Will Be The Go-To Tablet For NFL Sidelines
Each week, our “10 Dishes That Made My Career” series serves as a sort informal look at the most influential chefs in the culinary world. As our subjects reflect on the dishes that shaped their understanding of technique and flavor, certain names tend to come up time and again—Joël Robuchon, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Eric Ripert, and Ferran Adrià, to name a few.
But while these individual chefs have certainly impacted the food coming out of professional kitchen, the question of which restaurants wield the most influence brings up a whole slew of other factors. Does influence come from having the widest reach and the ability to reshape American eating habits on a vast scale? Or is influence in restaurants something more philosophical—an approach to food, hospitality, and pleasure that inspires others to be better on a daily basis?
On September 7 and 8, Stephen Torres will gather together some of the country’s finest chefs, bartenders, and restauranteurs for the second annual “Roots of American Food” conference. In addition to participating in lectures and panels, they’ll team up for two nights of collaborative dinners, creating dishes that reflect their approach to American cooking.
We figured there would be no better group to tackle the question: What is the most influential restaurant in the U.S. right now?
Here’s what they had to say.
“Currently, I’d have to go with Eleven Madison Park. From fine cuisine, to excellence in service and approach, the house that Danny built is forever ingrained in my mind as one that other restaurants aspire to be—[it's influential for its] depth of employee knowledge, use of premier quality ingredients, and a style of service that is professional and attentive, but familiar. These are the attributes of a great restaurant. These are characteristics that sustain longevity and inspire others.” — Matthew Jennings, Townsman, Boston
“The two most important restaurants in the U.S. are just around the corner from each other in NYC, the greatest restaurant city in the world: Prune and wd~50. Both are, at the core, mom-and-pop restaurants. Both are run by very, very smart chefs—way smarter than me, way smarter than you. Duh, they are very different places, but I love the food and aesthetics of both deeply. And Gabrielle and Wylie’s fingerprints are all over restaurants across the country, even the world.” — Brooks Headley, Del Posto, New York, NY
“To be honest, it’s probably McDonald’s. I know that’s not the cool thing to say, or what you’re looking for, but if it’s influence you want, it’s hard to deny fast food’s impact on obesity (and its posse, diabetes and heart disease), as well as a whole host of sourcing, environmental, agricultural, and economic factors that are driven by the quick-service industry. The world’s best restaurant is a little fish in this ocean of influence.” — Mark Canlis, Canlis, Seattle
“Here are several stabs at it, in no particular order:
— Stuart Brioza, State Bird Provisions, San Francisco
“The most influential restaurant is Alinea. Why? It is an iconic restaurant—discipline, brilliant fundamentals, thoughtfulness, and creation of exquisite taste. It’s a restaurant that has inspired many cooks and will continue to inspire for years to come. A place that makes you think, it’s not just food, but art.”
— Dominique Crenn, Atelier Crenn, San Francisco
The massive rains that hit the New York area Wednesday caused significant flooding in Suffolk County, east of New York City.
The rainfall was record-setting.
So much rain fell during such a short time that the region's roadways were inundated.
Numerous drivers had to abandon their cars or wait for rescue workers to lend an assist.
The flooding completely shut down whole swaths of the road system and made the morning commute a mess for lots of motorists.
SEE ALSO: Flash Floods After More Than 13 Inches Of Rain Falls In Two Hours On Long Island
SEE ALSO: 14 Photos Of The Crazy Flood That Soaked UCLA
According to a tipster who sent a horrifying account of his morning commute to Business Insider on Wednesday, bedbugs have been spotted on New York City's 7 train. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs New York's subway system, told us it is investigating the report.
This would be the third subway line to have a bedbug sighting in the past week.
"I am a regular 7 line rider in New York. I take the line every morning from Woodside to Bryant Park. This morning, I noticed them coming out from under the seat to feed on people's legs," Kedem Deletis wrote in an email to Business Insider. "I was on the 7 express train, which arrived at Bryant Park at 10 a.m. The cart I was in was one or two carts behind the center operator cart."
Early last week, subway cars on the N line were fumigated after bedbugs were found on board. Days later, more bedbugs were found on the N and a rider reported seeing the creatures on a 5 train.
Deletis told Business Insider he called the MTA, which runs New York's subway system, and "was treated pretty bad with the person on the line asking me what kind of proof I have."
"What exactly should I have done? Raised a panic on the train and have people screaming and hurt?" Deletis asked. "Maybe captured one of these bedbugs and risk bringing one home?"
Deletis said he was certain the insect he saw was a bedbug because he had an infestation in his building "about four years ago" and "that nightmare experience made every resident an expert."
MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz said the MTA would "follow up" on Deletis' report. Deletis received an email from Art Kelly, an MTA email and customer correspondence manager, on Wednesday afternoon.
"This is in response to your call regarding bedbugs on subway trains," Kelly wrote. "Please be assured that pest-control personnel will continue to be dispatched to trains and employee crew rooms where bedbugs have been reported. They will inspect for bedbugs and fumigate as necessary."
Another MTA spokesman, Adam Lisberg, told Business Insider officials follow up on all reported bedbug sightings in the subway.
"It is impossible to check all 5.5 million daily subway customers for bedbugs before they enter the system, but when we get a report we investigate immediately and fumigate if necessary," said Lisberg.
According to Ortiz, the last time the MTA had multiple bedbug problems in the subway was 2008, soon after infestations began a resurgence in New York.
"We previously had an issue with bed bugs right around the time in 2008 when the city first noticed there was an issue. Bedbugs were sighted on wood benches in a couple of stations," Ortiz said.
It's the classic case of billionaire brawling: your 150,000-square-foot vacation mansion is encroaching on mine.
The dispute between billionaires Peter Nygard and Louis Bacon over their adjacent Bahamas mansions is coming to a courthouse in New York City.
Bacon, hedge fund billionaire, is suing Canadian clothing magnate Nygard for allegedly engaging in "a long history of character assassination and numerous environmental misdeeds," related to Nygard’s tropical estate, according to The New York Times.
Bacon claims Nygard has been "illegally and surreptitiously adding to the size of his compound to the detriment of the local environment," and even allegedly ignoring a government order in 2010 to limit building onto his 150,000-square-foot estate he calls "Nygard Cay."
Additionally, Bacon claims the eccentric playboy billionaire has commercialized his property, turning it into a party pad for celebrities.
And to add insult to injury, he also says Nygard has been assassinating his character by hiring journalists to write articles that paint Bacon as a "murderer, drug trafficker and a member of the Ku Klux Klan."
Meanwhile, Nygard's lawyer says in a statement: "Today’s lawsuit is a continuation of Louis Bacon’s malicious campaign against Peter Nygard with the objective of obtaining Mr. Nygard’s Bahamian property (Nygard Cay), through illegal means, and to wrongfully continue to damage Mr. Nygard’s businesses and reputation."
He plans on filing a countersuit.
Welcome to New York, boys.
SEE ALSO: Here's What $5 Million Buys In Housing Markets Across The Globe
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New York has banned PriceWaterhouseCoopers from accepting consulting work from New York-regulated firms for two years after charging the "Big 4" accounting firm with removing a warning about financial information from countries facing U.S. sanctions.
The state's Department of Financial Services says the firm caved to pressure from Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi to strip wire transfers of information that would have triggered sanctions compliance alerts.
In June 2013 BTM paid a $250 million fine for violating U.S. sanctions.
"When bank executives pressure a consultant to whitewash a supposedly 'objective' report to regulators — and the consultant goes along with it — that can strike at the very heart of our system of prudential oversight,” DFS Superintendent Ben Lawsky said in a statement.
DFS accuses PwC of having first acknowledged that data manipulation would comprise the integrity of an ongoing "historical transaction review," but then deleting the information anyway.
"At the Bank’s request, PwC ultimately removed the original warning language from the final HTR Report the Bank submitted to regulators and, in fact, inserted a passage stating the exact opposite conclusion: '[W]e have concluded that the written instructions would not have impacted the completeness of the data available for the HTR and our methodology to process and search the HTR data was appropriate,'” DFS says.
One PwC director, now retired, warned against doing a more thorough review of the wires because doing so would "open up a whole other can of worms,” DFS says.
PwC has also agreed to pay a $25 million fine. Here's the full consent agreement:
The size of recent investments from Chinese firms and individuals in New York real estate has commanded headlines. Generally speaking, the properties being bought are familiar to those in the New York City property business.
Those doing the buying, however, are less well known. In reality, the wave of Chinese investment in New York City property is being led by some of the biggest names in real estate in the People’s Republic. Some of these investors hope to fill American condos with wealthy Chinese home seekers and stock U.S. offices with China’s outwardly looking companies.
For others, buying into U.S. assets represents a logical next step in expanding highly diversified portfolios. At the same time, Chinese developers — particularly residential developers — are facing a serious slump in the business, as home prices fall and vacancies rise in the country’s cities.
Indeed, a number of the nation’s big builders have flagged overbuilding and high land prices as causes for concern. That helps explain, in part, why some of China’s real estate titans are seeking out residential investments in overseas markets like New York. Here, then, is a look at six major property players in China that are making waves in New York.
Given China Vanke’s position as the largest residential developer in China, one could say the company is starting small in the U.S. In February, a partnership comprised of Vanke, Aby Rosen’s RFR Holdings and Hines broke ground on 610 Lexington Avenue, a 61-story condo building designed by Norman Foster. Vanke will also develop a four-building, 656-unit condo development in San Francisco called Lumina in partnership with Tishman Speyer. Vanke was founded in 1984, and began focusing on real estate in 1988. Since then, the company says it has built more than 500,000 homes in 70 cities. Vanke focuses on developing small residences for China’s growing urban population. Last year, it constructed 160 million square feet and brought in $28 billion in revenue. Vanka recently voiced concern that prices are overheating in some Chinese cities, Reuters reported. Vanke president Yu Liang told a real estate forum the company could well plow 10 percent of its overall investment into overseas markets in the next five years. The company’s preferred destination in the Western world? The U.S., according to the news service.
It’s no wonder Forest City Ratner chose Greenland Holding Group when it sought a partner to help expedite the construction of the Atlantic Yards project (recently rechristened Pacific Park Brooklyn). Greenland is Shanghai’s largest state-owned enterprise. Since 1992, the company has built urban complexes, industrial parks and business districts in more than 80 Chinese cities. The company also specializes in developing ultra high-rise towers and has some of the world’s tallest skyscrapers in its pipeline. Greenland is ranked number 268 in Fortune Magazine’s Global 500 last year — two spots above Goldman Sachs – and has $58 billion of assets under management as of 2013. In addition to real estate, Greenland has significant interests in energy, finance, construction and hotel and commercial center operations.
Fosun International’s $725 million purchase of 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza was the biggest foreign investment in commercial office space last year. That feat is no surprise when one considers the scale of Fosun’s business. Formed in 1992, Fosun is China’s largest closely held conglomerate. Its cofounder and Chairman, Guo Guangchang, has been called the Warren Buffet of China, making Fosun the Berkshire Hathaway of the Middle Kingdom. The company has nearly $30 billion in assets under management and posted about $1.3 billion in profits last year. Most of Fosun’s $8.3 billion in revenues in 2013 came from industrial operations, which include pharmaceuticals, property development, steel production and mining. It plans to aggressively develop its other main businesses — insurance, investment and asset management – over the coming decade.
Last year, the wife-and-husband team of Zhang Xin and Pan Shiyi partnered with Brazilian banking magnate Moise Safra to take a 40 percent stake in the General Motors building for $700 million. The deal made Zhang and Pan stakeholders in one of the most valuable real estate assets in the US. The duo is no stranger to big deals. Zhang and Pan serve as the chief executive and chairman, respectively, for SOHO China, the country’s largest developer of high-end office space. Founded in 1995, the company focuses on developing architecturally distinct buildings in Beijing and Shanghai by collaborating with notable architects such as of Zaha Hadid. Forbes puts Zhang and Pan’s fortune at $3.9 billion. Last year, SOHO reported a profit of $1.3 billion on revenues of $2.4 billion. The company also transitioned to a business model focused on operating rather than selling buildings. SOHO has built about 32 million square feet of office space and has a total development portfolio of 58 million square feet.
Few details have emerged since Wanda Group chairman — and China’s richest man — Wang Jianlin said last year he would invest $1 billion in a New York hotel and residence. But Wang has shown his ability to execute. He purchased cinema chain AMC group for $2.6 billion in 2012. He also spent $900 million on a 90-percent stake in a Chicago mixed-use development earlier this year. Last week, he won the right to develop a former department store in Beverly Hills with a $1.2 billion bid. Wang topped Forbes Magazine’s China Rich List with an estimated wealth of $14.1 billion last year. Wanda Group’s assets under management totaled $62.8 billion at the end of 2013. Wang spent 16 years in the army and did a brief stint with the Dalian city government before establishing Wanda Group in 1988. Initially focusing on urban reconstruction in the seaport city of Dalian, the company embarked in 1992 on residential development in Guangzhou, China’s third largest city. Since then, Wanda has diversified into four major businesses: commercial real estate; hotel development and management; department stores; and cultural enterprises, including movie theaters, film production and theme parks.
In 2012, XIN Development purchased a Williamsburg condo site for $54 million. The firm has since begun construction on the Oosten, a 216-unit development designed by Dutch architect Piet Boons. XIN Development is the U.S. arm of the Beijing-based homebuilder Xinyuan Real Estate. Founded by chairman and CEO Yong Zhang in 1997, the company has a simple strategy: it acquires land in China’s high-growth, second tier cities and develops middle-income housing. As of last year, Xinyuan had completed 28 projects comprising more than 42,000 apartments. Between 2009 and 2013, Xinyuan has grown revenues 50 percent to nearly $900 million, according to its last annual report. Xinyuan became the first Chinese real estate company to list on the New York Stock Exchange in December 2007. Investors don’t appear to be entirely sold on the company, however. Xinyuan, which has a market cap of just $315 million, has seen its stock price tumble 73 percent since going public.
SEE ALSO: 8 Real Chinese Dishes You Should Order Instead Of The American Knockoffs
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In his ongoing tussle with Airbnb, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has asked for detailed records on 124 hosts in the New York area. And Airbnb has agreed to give them to him.
Airbnb has about 16,000 hosts in New York. In a post explaining the news, Airbnb's David Hantman writes:
"This request represents an incredibly small fraction of our New York hosting community – far less than 1 percent.
... nothing about these hosting profiles suggests he is after anyone but individuals who may be flagrantly misusing our platform."
The NY AG wants to locate people it believes are running "illegal hotels," an AG spokesperson told Business Insider in April. In documents to compel the AG to turn over data about its users in April, it says that New York law forbids people to sublet their apartment for less than a month or more.
"It is illegal for residents of Class A buildings to rent out their apartments for any period of time less than 30 days unless they are also present in the apartment," the documents say.
The AG's office told us it is not trying to stop people in New York from using the site to rent out a spare room now and then. It's trying to find hosts with multiple New York listings who are perhaps running a room-renting business without complying with all hotel laws, the spokesperson said.
Airbnb negotiated with the AG and agreed to turn over only anonymous data on its New York hosts. The AG has a year to request details on specific hosts.
Here's the full post from Airbnb:
I want to provide you the latest update on the New York Attorney General’s investigation into our community here in New York.
As you remember, the New York Attorney General originally requested a full set of data on most of our hosts in New York, and we were concerned that this request was too broad. After some legal wrangling, we agreed to provide the Attorney General anonymized data about approximately 16,000 hosts in New York. This data did not include names, apartment numbers, or other personally-identifiable information, and was designed to present the Attorney General with a full picture of who our community is, and how it operates in New York. Under the agreement, the Attorney General’s Office has one year to review the anonymized data and receive information from us about individual hosts who may be subject to further investigation. You can read more about this agreement here.
Before we reached this agreement, we reviewed our community in New York and removed some bad actors who were providing a low-quality experience or failing to live up to the standards we set for our community.
After we reached this agreement and as this process continued, we became increasingly confident that the Attorney General was truly concerned about a relatively small number of hosts he considered to be “bad actors,” and that the vast majority of our community was never a target of his inquiries. As a result, we came to expect that we would start receiving requests for individual data at a relatively modest level.
This week, that confidence was reinforced as the Attorney General requested unredacted, personal information on 124 individual past and present hosts. The vast majority of these hosts were no longer on our site. The remainder of records requested are all for hosts with multiple listings, and without knowing more about why the Attorney General is interested in those hosts specifically, it is hard to know why they have been targeted.
But two things are clear.
First, this request represents an incredibly small fraction of our New York hosting community – far less than 1 percent. The vast majority of our hosts are simply renting out their own homes on an occasional basis. The law was never meant to target them, and we now believe the Attorney General did not mean to target regular New Yorkers either.
Second, while the Attorney General’s Office may request additional information in the coming months, nothing about these hosting profiles suggests he is after anyone but individuals who may be flagrantly misusing our platform.
We have notified each of the 124 hosts subject to this request individually, so if you have not heard from us this week, your information was not requested. As this process progresses, we will continue to strive to be as transparent as possible. In the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions.
Brandon Stanton is the photographer behind Humans of New York, the wildly popular photography blog that currently has more likes on Facebook than the entire population of New York City itself. Stanton was recently tapped by the United Nations to go on a nearly 2-month-long "world tour" to bring his signature style to various countries around the globe.
Stanton's method involves high-quality portraits of people he meets on the street paired with illuminating quotes from them. The blog has been documenting people in and around New York City (and various other select cities) since 2010, and was the subject of a best-selling book released last year.
Currently, Stanton is shooting in Uganda. Before that, he traveled to Kenya, Jordan, Iraq, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Next up are India and Vietnam, according to The Atlantic. The trip was created to build awareness for the UN's Millennium Development Goals project, by attaching human faces to the project's written objectives.
While Stanton's travels have just begun, he's already got some great shots in the bag. Click through our slideshow to see some of the best ones. You can see more on his site, which is updated regularly.
Apple has been granted a U.S. patent for the iconic cube design of its flagship New York store, 9to5Mac reports.
The patent is for the design of the 32-foot tall above-ground glass cube element of Apple's Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan. The self-supporting glass cube is completely free of structural steel. A 2011 redesign of the cube reduced the number of glass panels from 90 to just 13.
The patent application, which is listed as having been filed in 2012, was granted to Apple on Aug. 26, and will last for 14 years.
Late Apple founder Steve Jobs, who spearheaded the original design and manufacture of the Fifth Avenue store, is listed among the inventors on the patent filing.
Here's an illustration from the patent showing the cube's design:
Research published in 2010 revealed that Apple's Fifth Avenue store is the fifth most photographed location in New York, behind the Empire State Building, Times Square, the Rockefeller Center, and Grand Central Station.
The glass is still, well, glass. In January, one of the cube's glass panels shattered after clean-up crews accidentally hit it with a snowblower.
You can see the shattered glass panel in the Instagram photo below:
As 9to5Mac reports, patenting the design of its stores is not unusual for Apple. In 2012 the company was granted a patent for the cylindrical exterior of its Shanghai store. See below:
SEE ALSO: The World's Largest Apple Store Might Be Built Inside A Dubai Mall
There were no crashes, deaths, or injuries (except, presumably, to birds), nor heroic emergency landings on the Hudson River, but there were three bird strikes Wednesday morning at New York's LaGuardia Airport.
Newsday reported that the strikes "occurred from around 7:45 a.m. to 8:45 a.m."
AP reported that one strike happened as a plane was landing, and one occurred during taxiing after landing.
Details weren't supplied on the third strike.
In the heat of the West Indian Day Parade in Brooklyn on Monday, Columbia law professor Tim Wu stumbled into New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D). It was awkward.
"He gave me this funny look and he kind of looked into the distance. It was a strange moment," Wu recalled in an interview with Business Insider the next day. "I felt as if I was an illegitimate child or something who had suddenly shown up out of nowhere."
However, this uncomfortable pair might just find themselves sharing a ticket when Cuomo is up for re-election in November.
An eccentric technology activist best known for coining the phrase "net neutrality," Wu has parachuted into New York politics this year and is threatening Cuomo with embarrassment. Wu is running for lieutenant governor in New York's Democratic primary alongside gubernatorial candidate Zephyr Teachout, and their campaign has focused on criticizing Cuomo and other state politicians for corruption in Albany.
Thanks to quirks in New York's election law, in spite of his status as a high-profile Cuomo critic, Wu could end up as the governor's No. 2.
In New York, the governor and their running mate, the lieutenant governor, are elected independently in the primary. But they run on the same ticket in the general election.
Polls show Cuomo, who was first elected in 2010, is likely well on his way to a second term with strong approval ratings and a large lead over his GOP opponent. Although Cuomo has high name recognition, on a primary ballot with two candidates for lieutenant governor, huge swaths of the governor's supporters might not have any idea which one is Cuomo's choice — Wu or the Cuomo-backed Kathy Hochul, a former congresswoman. This creates an opening for a Cuomo rival to become a Cuomo deputy, though Wu predicts Teachout will win.
Along with the split ballot, Wu's chances could be bolstered by liberal discontent with Cuomo. Despite the governor's apparent popularity, he has earned the ire of many activists on the left who accuse him of advocating conservative economic policies and not doing enough to help Democrats gain control of the state legislature.
"New York has become a progressive, 2-to-1 Democratic state, but the entrenchment of Albany's bipartisan system ... has stifled change," one Democratic political operative in Albany complained. "Who’s been standing in the way? Our Democratic governor. In what universe could this not make the rank-and-file Democratic activists, staffers, and even electeds absolutely crazy?"
Hochul, who represented a heavily Republican district in Western New York, is seen as even more conservative than Cuomo. During her time in Congress, she once voted to hold President Obama's attorney general, Eric Holder, in contempt and developed a moderate brand based on her opposition to driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants. Hochul holds staunchly liberal positions on other issues like Medicare.
Because of these factors, some advocate getting their revenge on Cuomo through Wu's election. The left-leaning site Daily Kos joined other news outlets — including The New York Times, New York Observer, and The Nation— in supporting Wu for precisely that reason: He would be a "thorn" in Cuomo's side.
"New York's noxious governor, Andrew Cuomo, may be riding a wave of money and his father's last name to an easy re-election, but there's a way you can ruin his life: Help defeat his choice for lieutenant governor," Daily Kos declared last Thursday. "He will be a thorn in the corporatist Cuomo's side." (Neither the Times nor Daily Kos made an endorsement in the governor's race. The Observer called for a Cuomo-Wu vote.)
There is some precedence for a New York gubernatorial candidate running alongside a primary rival in the general election.
In 2010, GOP gubernatorial nominee Carl Paladino was also saddled with his primary foe’s No. 2; however, that Republican ticket was defeated by Cuomo in the general election. As Capital New York noted, Cuomo's own father, former Gov. Mario Cuomo, saw his running mate lose in 1982. After he won the general election with his rival on the ticket, the new lieutenant governor resigned from the largely ceremonial position, reportedly citing boredom.
But Wu is vowing to soldier on even if Teachout loses her race against Cuomo. And if Wu ends up elected with the governor, he's not planning to quiet his Cuomo criticism. Wu told Business Insider it's "fair" to assume that, if Cuomo continues to govern as he has the previous four years, he will find a lieutenant governor speaking out against him.
"My policy would ... to be an advocate for the public first and foremost. I wouldn’t go out of my way to be oppositional. My duty isn’t to make his life miserable," Wu said. "It’s possible in Washington we have too many checks and balances. In Albany, it’s sort of the opposite problem."
However, in spite of the tantalizing prospect of watching two rivals share a ticket, there are plenty of reasons to think Hochul will ultimately prevail. Powerful New York labor unions with proven vote-getting operations have recently announced their plan to go all-in for her. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a populist firebrand, headlined a rally for Cuomo's running mate on Wednesday afternoon.
"There is no question that Kathy Hochul is the Lieutenant Governor that New York City needs," de Blasio said in a statement. "In one of the most Republican districts in New York, Kathy held true to our core Democratic values."
Cuomo's campaign did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, but one of the governor's supporters said he was baffled by the amount of attention Wu was receiving. The supporter pointed to Hochul's stronger fund-raising and labor support as signs of her candidacy's strength.
"Without a doubt, she's not going to get as many votes as Cuomo," he said. "But I think that it is a little bit overblown … I feel like in any other situation, you would never be having a conversation about a candidate that was this unserious — even for a city council race."
In addition to pleasing liberal activists, a Wu win would also some color to Albany politics as he's a far cry from the typical political candidate.
According to a 2006 New York Observer profile, Wu was a "recurring fixture at Burning Man, the neo-hippie arts festival set annually in the Nevada desert, where he sometimes dons a cowboy costume."
Wu says he no longer attends the hippie fest, but his unfiltered style makes him distinctly unconventional. Up until Tuesday afternoon, Wu's campaign website featured sections dedicated to his favorite fruits (he enjoys durians and tomatoes) and a photo of Wu in a blue bear costume that he said was used as a teaching prop for copyright law. It also included a page outlining how he prefers his water.
"I think water without ice tastes better," Wu explained to Business Insider.
For his part, Cuomo was reportedly asked about Wu at the West Indian Day Parade where they ran into each other. Cuomo refused to acknowledge the chance he might get paired with Hochul's upstart challenger.
“It’s not gonna happen," Cuomo replied. "Kathy Hochul is going to win."
Warner Music Group CEO Stephen Cooper sold his Fifth avenue penthouse for $35 million, according to The Real Deal.
Cooper sold the pad to Anton Levy, a managing director at the private investment firm General Atlantic, for $5 million above the asking price.
Cooper originally purchased the apartment in 2004 for $20 million.
If this apartment looks familiar to you, then you probably watch too much TV. CW's drama "Gossip Girl" used the building's exterior in its opening credits.
It's official: Hedge-fund billionaire Israel "Izzy" Englander paid a record $71.3 million for a duplex apartment at New York's swanky 740 Park Ave., according to Bloomberg.
That's the highest price ever paid for a New York City co-op.
The billionaire purchased the apartment from the country of France, which was once used by the French ambassador, for a whopping $23 million over the asking price. A three-way bidding war pushed up the apartment's price, Curbed reported when the sale was first announced.
Englander already lived in the building, though the new duplex is a sure upgrade.
The palatial home has hardwood flooring, high ceilings, classic moldings, five fireplaces, and a small planting terrace. Among the 18 rooms, six are staff and maids' rooms, with a servants' hall and a two-bedroom master suite.
This is 740 Park Avenue, one of Manhattan's most famous and powerful buildings. Located on the 12th and 13th floors, the apartment has an astounding 18 rooms with 38 windows. 
A private elevator vestibule opens to a 35-foot marble gallery and the staircase leading to the second floor.
Off the gallery is a baronial corner living room. The yellow accents offset the formal furniture.
And if you step through the living room, you enter what looks like could be part of the library.
On the same floor room is the 10-person dining room with large windows and a fireplace.
There's also a study, complete with old-world paintings, wallpaper, and a fireplace.
Here's the floor plan:
SEE ALSO: Buy The Most Expensive Home In Las Vegas For $38 Million
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The real estate CEO whose company was linked to the small plane that crashed in Jamaica on Friday was called the "patron saint" of Rochester, New York for his extensive claim on the city's skyline.
Tim Louis Macaluso of City Newspaper in Rochester profiled Larry Glazer, who owns Buckingham Properties, in July.
Glazer and his wife were on the plane Glazer owned when it crashed, his son confirmed. The plane became unresponsive over the Atlantic Ocean.
Here's what Macaluso wrote about Glazer just a couple of months ago:
Glazer's company, Buckingham Properties, either owns, co-owns, or manages nearly 13 million square feet of real estate space, including some of downtown Rochester's most iconic buildings: Midtown Tower, Xerox Square, and the Bausch and Lomb building.
Glazer, Buckingham's CEO and managing partner, began the company in the late 1960's when he partnered with a friend on a duplex. Now with 60 buildings in the Rochester area as well as projects in Florida, Buckingham is a rapidly growing, highly diversified real estate development company.
Glazer had big plans to improve downtown Rochester. One proposed development, dubbed "The Grove," was slated to include retail space, a movie theater, and possibly a hotel, according to City Newspaper.
He told the newspaper: "My vision starts with the idea that downtown can come back and it will be vibrant. It will be different than it was. But I've spent the last few years traveling around this country looking at downtowns, and I see what they've done. And I'm telling you that there's no reason why Rochester can't do it, too."
Glazer founded Buckingham Properties in 1970, according to the company's website.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) encountered his primary challenger, Zephyr Teachout, while attending a Midtown parade Saturday — sort of.
In video captured by NYTrue.com, Teachout is shown approaching Cuomo at the annual Labor Day celebration. But Cuomo's campaign manager, Joe Percoco, repeatedly moves to stand between her and the governor. Eventually, Teachout gives up and circles the group to try from another angle.
As Teachout makes her second attempt, Cuomo turns his head to repeatedly shout to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) in the distance. With Teachout just a couple feet in front of him, Cuomo maintains his focus on de Blasio even as the mayor is busy greeting other officials.
Watch the exchange below.
Cuomo has been criticized for refusing to debate Teachout, a Fordham professor running a spirited primary campaign to Cuomo's left even as the incumbent dominates in name recognition and fund-raising. Voters head to the polls next Tuesday.
The Democrat running against Rep. Michael Grimm (R-New York) is taking off the gloves and is set to release a new commercial on Monday that highlights the 20-count indictment against the incumbent.
Domenic Recchia, Grimm's challenger, appeared to pack in as many of the Grimm's charges as possible for the television spot, which was shared in advance with Business Insider.
"We’d like to tell you all 20 COUNTS in the massive federal INDICTMENT against MICHAEL GRIMM," the ad declares as local residents read several of the charges out loud. "But then AGAIN … we only have 30 SECONDS."
Grimm is accused of a host of crimes related to his management of a health food store, Healthalicious, that mostly occurred before he ran for Congress. Among other things, federal prosecutors accuse Grimm of hiring undocumented immigrants and then committing wire fraud and perjury in an attempt to cover it up.
Grimm has steadfastly maintained his innocence, but Recchia, a former city councilman, nevertheless insisted the district deserves "better."
"The people of Staten Island and South Brooklyn deserve better than a member of congress who has been indicted by a federal grand jury. Working families need honest leadership, someone who doesn’t spend more time defending himself than he does his own constituents," Recchia said in a statement. "I will honestly and faithfully serve the people of these two great boroughs, and be a representative they can all be proud of."
Update (3:24 p.m.):The Grimm campaign released a statement in response criticizing Recchia for his negative messaging: "It's obvious that Dom Recchia's entire campaign boils down to ‘Michael Grimm is bad so vote for me’ and he’s desperately hoping that no one discovers that he’s now pretending to support the opposite of everything he voted for in the City Council including increasing every middle class tax, raising tolls, and ending term limits."
View the ad below.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) is fuming mad over how the National Football League handled the alleged incident of domestic violence involving Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice.
"It's outrageous. I think it's disgraceful. I think it was an absolute terrible job by the NFL. I think they did not do the right thing. I think they turned a blind eye," Gillibrand said during a Tuesday morning interview on WNYC's "The Brian Lehrer Show."
In July, the NFL had initially decided to suspend Rice for two games after the football star was arrested for allegedly knocking out his wife in an Atlantic City elevator. After TMZ published new footage of the incident on Monday, the Ravens cut Rice and the NFL suspended him indefinitely.
Gillibrand argued that the initial controversy should have been enough to get rid of Rice.
"The man had admitted that, 'I beat my wife,' and they just suspended him for two games?" she asked. "That's an inadequate response to the scourge of domestic violence."
Gillibrand demurred, however, when she was pressed on whether NFL commissioner Roger Goodell should also be shown the door.
"I think the NFL should look long and hard at their polices and figure out what they are doing wrong. Because they are not getting it right. And this is systemic. It's domestic violence in the NFL. It's sexual assault on college campuses and in the military. It is this constant lack of valuing of women," she said. "This is unacceptable behavior and it should not be allowed by anyone — and certainly not an NFL star."
