Offensive? I think so...

Subject: yes, the Observer can publish other than vapid

EmilyM wrote: Can teh Observer be anything other than vapid?

actually, yes, just today:


Ratner Sends Gehry To Drawing Board
by Matthew Scheurman. NY Observer.

Never mind the headline (which was meant for some other article?), the article is about the so-called "Community Benefits Agreement:"

Just two of the eight signatories to the agreement—ACORN and the New York State Association of Minority Contractors—existed as incorporated entities before the negotiations. Four of the other groups are still not registered.

Apparently BUILD has gone somewhat silent:
Mr. Caldwell wouldn’t return phone calls, and his spokeswoman, Cheryl Duncan, refused to set up an interview with him.

Jobs? What jobs?
Perhaps more importantly, though, is just how many jobs will go to the poor, black neighborhood residents who live on three sides of the project site. The Brooklyn document sets up a hierarchy whereby public-housing residents get first dibs on spots in a job-referral program and a construction-job training program. But the agreement sets no numerical targets for how many local people will get jobs.

The agreement doesn’t mention the 400 jobs Forest City expects to bring when it moves the Nets basketball arena from New Jersey, which Mr. Stuckey said will be subject to union rules and may be filled with current employees.

Nor does the agreement mention jobs in the proposed hotel, which would also be subject to union rules, Mr. Stuckey said.

That leaves the construction jobs, about 1,500 of them over the next 10 years. The agreement sets a goal of employing 35 percent minorities—a reasonable and achievable threshold which Forest City has met on its other projects. In other words, 525 jobs—not reserved for public-housing residents, or even residents of Crown Heights and Bed-Stuy, but for minorities from all over the metropolitan region.

“The question is, how much does each job cost in terms of public investment, and could that money be used more wisely?” asked Norman Oder, a project opponent and author of the Times Ratner Report blog. “If this is going to cost more than a billion dollars over 30 years in terms of total public investment, we should have been having a public discussion about costs and benefits years ago.” [/url][/i]

yup, thats his daughter.