Featured, National - Wednesday, November 4, 2009 16:19 - 0 Comments
NYU Is Really, Really Liberal
In light of last night’s off-year elections, it seems an appropriate time to zoom back to the Halcyon days of the 2008 election cycle. Remember all that excitement during the campaign? All the hope? All the classic Sarah Palin videos? When John McCain said, “The fundamentals of the economy are sound?”
Ah, good times.
Anyway, I got to feeling curious about which of our fine professors and administrators decided to put their money where their mouth was and donated money to the Presidential candidates in the 2008 cycle. The results are pretty epic.
Using the Huffington Post’s FundRace tool, which aggregates the Federal Election Committee’s list of $200+ donations to single Presidential candidates, I searched for those people listing either “New York University” or “NYU” as their employer.
Of 312 donors (giving at least $200), 306 of them gave to Democratic candidates. That means that only 1.9% of the donors gave to Republicans. Donor list after the jump.
Entertainment, Featured - Wednesday, November 4, 2009 11:19 - 19 Comments
Under the Arch Wants to Make Your Reality TV Dreams Come True
We know the primary reason you came to NYU was for a shot at getting on The City, MTV’s sad excuse for a Hills NYC remake. Well, burgeoning reality stars, your time as come! According to a New York Post article and a Wall Street Journal blog from last week, Under The Arch, a web series started in October 2006 by NYUer Sean Patrick Murray, is hosting an “open call” for the second season of the show they describe as “nine NYU students living their dream.”
If you think you have a special enough life at NYU to make us watch the second season, head on over to David Barton Gym (yes that’s the new gym on Astor Place that looks like a nightclub for yoga lovers) from November 16-20. The trailer they released is pretty good. Murray’s honesty with his project, which MTV has rarely been with its pop-realities, was best described in this quote from WSJ:
Although he strives for realism, Murray says that there is an unavoidable element of artifice that goes with the show, so that the cameras know where to be to record what’s going on. “We’ll get together once a week and talk about the stories we want to tell in the same way that anyone who creates a play or movie does,” he says.
City, Featured - Wednesday, November 4, 2009 8:30 - 0 Comments
Reviewing Last Night’s Unexpectedly Dramatic Mayoral Election
Like most of the New York media, we expected yesterday’s mayoral election to be a quick, uneventful affirmation of incumbent mayor Michael Bloomberg’s popularity, which is probably why NYU Local was one of the only blogs covering the election live. And except for a nude attacker outside a polling station, most of the day was generally pretty boring. For the first few minutes after polls had closed, the slaughtering of Bloomberg’s Democratic opponent Bill Thompson seemed imminent — the gap had widened to over 30 percentage points at one point. As we noted in our post last night, the New York Times (and apparently NBC) both declared Bloomberg victorious early, even with more than 80% of precincts yet to report their votes.
However, as votes from the outer boroughs were counted, Bloomberg’s commanding lead rapidly became slimmer and slimmer until Hizzoner was only one percentage point ahead of Thompson. Reporters on NY1, which refrained from declaring a victor early, were visibly stunned. NBC officially retracted their endorsement and the Times changed their headline from “Bloomberg wins” to “Bloomberg projected to win.” Not only had the tables turned in a matter of minutes, but the city’s richest and most powerful man was also close to losing his job. For about a moment here, the biggest upset in recent New York history was in reach.
Featured, On Campus - Tuesday, November 3, 2009 12:25 - 14 Comments
NYU Tours At Bobst Despite Student Death This Morning
There were no fewer than four NYU tours taking place in the atrium of Bobst at 11:30 this morning. According to NYU ambassador-in-training Natalie Veenhof, Bobst is a routine stop and the tours were scheduled in advance of today. She said she only found out about the suicide at Bobst when she arrived here this morning, and she did not know whether the ambassadors conducting the tours even knew about it yet.
Veenhof said that NYU ambassadors go through special training to hande difficult questions, but she hasn’t gone through it herself yet and did not know whether suicide was one of the topics covered.
Featured, On Campus, On-Campus Developing - Tuesday, November 3, 2009 12:22 - 23 Comments
NYU Student Found Dead in Bobst Library
A male NYU student died in Bobst this morning at 4:30am, according to a report by WSN. The library is currently closed. We’ll get back to you with more information as it becomes available.
Update 9:20am: Public Safety would not confirm anything, and we’re waiting for John Beckman to get back to us.
9:21am: Bobst is now open. NYU spokesman John Beckman will be releasing a statement shortly.
10:10am: No area of Bobst has been cordoned off. Spoke to a security guard and a Bobst employee – neither could confirm the nature of the death.
10:41am: Gothamist is reporting the death as a suicide. A tipster who e-mailed us early this morning also believed it to be a suicide. However, there has not yet been official confirmation on this fact.
10:54am: Note that Gothamist says NYPD confirmed the student jumped. There are Plexiglas walls in addition to the railings on every floor with a walkway overlooking the atrium except for the 2nd floor.
12:20pm: President Sexton just sent out a university-wide e-mailing acknowledging that a junior in CAS has died by suicide. Full text of the e-mail after the jump.
12:22pm: NYU is still running campus tours in Bobst.
If you want to discuss this or any other problems that you’re experiencing, please remember that the Wellness Center is available to help 24/7 at 212-443-9999.
City, Featured - Tuesday, November 3, 2009 8:00 - 17 Comments
Following Today’s NYC Mayoral Election (With Updates)
After months of fiery campaigning, the 2009 mayoral election is taking hold of New York City today. And in case you haven’t seen the flyers, posters, TV ads, online ads, buttons, bumper stickers, etc., incumbent Mayor Michael Bloomberg — running on the Independent and Republican ticket — is heavily favored to win over Democrat William Thompson. More specifically, Bloomberg leads by 12%, which is actually a stark decrease from a few weeks ago, according to the latest Quinnipiac poll.
More than any other in recent memory, the hype around this particular election has New York voters in a fuss. Not only has Bloomberg funded his campaign with nearly $100 million of his own money — the most in United States history — but Hizzoner is also about to be elected to his third consecutive term (necessitating a City Council-approved amendment). Naturally, New Yorkers of all backgrounds are crying foul over the thought of the city’s wealthiest man essentially buying his power.
Gawker’s anti-endorsement echoes typical resentment: “[Bloomberg] has been unable to win any political battle with anyone he couldn’t literally buy off” (Also: “He is personally a jerk. He is a thin-skinned, unpleasant, sanctimonious asshole”). Even the New York Times, which unsurprisingly endorsed Bloomberg, ran an op-ed last night from a former chief criticizing the Mayor’s absurd spending: “He could have saved himself a few hundred million dollars and New Yorkers could feel as though he was asking for their votes rather than buying them.”
Featured, On Campus - Monday, November 2, 2009 11:35 - 2 Comments
NYU Halloween Punk Showcase
A comprehensively tattooed man dressed up in a pink tutu and blonde wig gutturalizing lyrics as he swayed across stage may have been the most terrifying moment of my Halloween weekend. The NYU Program Board’s A Refined Evening of Hardcore at Le Poisson Rouge lived up to half the title. The photographs after the jump comprehensively capture the spirit of the night. NYPD showed up after an unruly non-NYU show-goer “had an altercation” with a female bar tender, despite (or perhaps because…?) no alcohol being served at the event.
Continue…
Featured, On Campus, On-Campus Developing - Sunday, November 1, 2009 22:04 - 3 Comments
Developing: Scaffolding Collapses on Astor Place and Broadway
Massive scaffolding collapse on Broadway in-front of the Gap and Karen’s Health Food Cafe.
Send tips to tips@nyulocal.com Continue…
Featured, On Campus - Friday, October 30, 2009 16:33 - 1 Comment
How to Avoid the Village Halloween Parade
Scenario: It’s 5pm on Halloween freshman year. You’re putting on the sluttiest pumpkin costume you’ve ever worn, and you’ve planned the best.night.ever. at the parade, where you’ll meet up with that cute guy on your floor who has been giving you looks in the elevator ALL semester and maybe even go “all the way” with him, instead of waiting twenty-eight days, like you usually do. Flash forward seven hours: you’re being trampled on by a drunken homeless man with reindeer horns on while mascara runs down your cheeks which are hot, red and soaking wet from your happy holiday tears. What went wrong?
Answer: you went to the Halloween Parade. The Greenwich Village parade is often described as “one of things you TOTALLY have to do at least once in your life”, and usually when people say that, it’s something that will traumatize you and make you wish you’d never done it, like growing a neck-beard. So now that you’ve had this horrible experience, how can we make sure it never happens again? Look no further, as I’ve compiled a helpful guide of The Three A’s of Avoiding the Evil Parade That Plagues the West Village Each Halloween.
Featured, On Campus - Wednesday, October 28, 2009 12:16 - 14 Comments
NYU’s Proposed Anti-Smoking Measures Are Stifling
Let me preface this by saying to all you non-smokers: I understand that cigarette smoke smells gross. I recognize the frustration of going to a school where a lot of students enjoy lighting up. And no, I am not going to argue that smoking isn’t a bad habit; it’s horrible for your body, makes your hair smell, and costs a lot of money. So please spare me the “But it’s bad for you!” lecture I receive every time I defend a person’s right to smoke in public.
That said, there’s a difference between someone blowing smoke directly in your face from a few inches away and walking by a smoker as you head into 194 Mercer. The former is rude and violates the sacred code of smoking etiquette, and yes, you’d have a right to complain about that. The latter, however, is called “living in Manhattan,” and to the person or people who complained about “cigarette smoke in front of Bobst Library,” I wonder why you chose to come to school here in the first place.
Part of living in New York—especially Manhattan—is compromise. You agree to give up a big living space in return for calling the East Village home. You put up with crowded L trains during rush hour. You turn up your white noise machine when you’re going to sleep and the tenant above you is hosting a party on a Friday night. In short, you deal with things you don’t particularly like, because you understand that you live on a small island with a million and a half other people who, like you, are just trying to get through their day without driving themselves crazy. One of the ways many New Yorkers (and the students who study among them, if you feel the need to make that distinction) do that is by smoking. And you have no right to take that privilege away from us.
